Biologic Agents for Treatment of RA are Used by Less than 3% of Patients on 1st-Line & Less than 4% on 2nd-Line

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Although Approved for First-Line Use, Biologic Agents for the Treatment of

Rheumatoid Arthritis are Used by Less than 3% of Patients on First-Line and

Less than 4% on Second-Line

http://www.earthtimes.org:80/articles/show/news_press_release,26940.shtml

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms

focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that although

biologic agents used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis are approved

for first-line use, they are actually used by less than 3% of patients on

first-line treatment and less than 4% on second-line treatment.

According to the new report entitled Treatment Algorithms in Rheumatoid

Arthritis, this limited penetration is due primarily to payer restrictions

on reimbursement; patients must often fail therapy on methotrexate before

the high cost of biologics will be reimbursed by health care plans.

Therefore, substantial revenue opportunity for conventional

disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) remains in early lines of

therapy.

Until January 1, 2006, when the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and

Modernization Act (MMA) went into effect, Centocor/Schering-Plough/Tanabe

Seiyaku's Remicade held a reimbursement advantage over other TNF-alpha

inhibitors because, under previous Medicare regulations, self-administered

injectable drugs were not reimbursable.

" Despite Remicade's advantage to Medicare subscribers, Amgen/Wyeth's Enbrel

still managed to capture an equal percentage of first- and second-line

patient shares, and has greater use than Remicade in third-line patient

share, " said Dr. Madhuri Borde, analyst at Decision Resources.