Price war about to start with psoriasis treatments?

[Fred]

We're often talking on Psoriasis Club about the costs of treatment and you may find this interesting as (Secukinumab) now going under the name Cosentyx could be pressured into offering a low price, after getting recommended approval as a first line treatment for psoriasis by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP)

Quote:

---

A recommendation from the CHMP generally translates into an approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Therefore, the drug can be expected to be launched early next year.

Cosentyx is an IL-17 inhibitor that targets the interleukin-17A, a pro-inflammatory protein. It is also being evaluated against other auto-immune diseases. The CHMP recommended the drug as a first-line treatment for the disease. This puts Novartis’ drug ahead of Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara and Pfizer Inc. and Amgen, Inc.’s co-marketed drug Enbrel.

Psoriasis is an auto-immune inflammatory disease, characterized by the formation and accumulation of scaly silver patches on the skin, with redness and itchiness. Patients are first treated with systematic therapies, such as methotrexate or ciclosporin. These therapies can be hard to tolerate, with severe side-effects. Some patients may not even respond to them. In such cases, patients are treated with drugs like Stelara or Enbrel. Stelara is a monoclonal antibody. On the other hand, Enbrel is a TNF inhibitor that blocks the action of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), associated with the body’s inflammatory response.

The first-line indication gives the drug an advantage over other available options. In earlier studies, Cosentyx was shown to have greater effectiveness than Enbrel. Novartis is currently conducting studies to evaluate Cosentyx's comparative efficacy with Stelara, results of which are due in the current quarter. Stelara generated sales of $1.5 billion in 2013. However, the drug is also prescribed for other inflammatory diseases, so not all sales can be attributed to the Psoriasis market. Amgen reported $4.5 billion in revenues from Enbrel, which is also approved for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

Cosentyx was approved for the same indication by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October. However, it is likely to face troubles on the pricing front. It will directly compete with methotrexate and other systematic treatments, for which many cheap generics are available.

Enbrel costs nearly $17,270 per year. Due to Cosentyx’s superioty, Novartis is likely to keep a higher price tag. Enbrel and Stelara are used only after first-line treatment has failed. Therefore, if Cosentyx is priced higher, insurance providers may limit its use to first-line treatment given to patients suffering from the severe stage of the disease, and not as a replacement for the two drugs.

Enbrel, which has been in the market for years and is widely used, is already being sold at heavily negotiated prices. Therefore, healthcare providers may be reluctant to shift to Cosentyx.

Despite strong trial results, Cosentyx’s success will also depend on the pricing. It can have an advantage over Stelara if ongoing trials prove its superiority over it. Stelara can cost between $28,000 and $55,000 per year, depending on the dosage. Hence, both the drugs can compete on pricing. Novartis should also expect to face pricing pressures from UK cost-watchdog National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The agency recommends the drugs to be used by UK’s National Health Services, based on their costs, compared to additional benefits over current standard-of-care treatments. NICE can be considerably strict in its evaluations of cost-benefit analysis for new drugs. It did not approve the use of Stelara for psoriatic arthritis in March this year.

Source: bidnessetc.com

Secukinumab gets one step closer to approval in Europe for treating psoriasis.

So are the gloves off and this could be the start of a pricing war for psoriasis treatments?