Rheumatoid Arthritis | Treatment Algorithms | Claims Data Analysis | US | 2018

MARKET OUTLOOK

Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is typically initiated with cost-effective conventional DMARDs, such as methotrexate. For  RA patients who are refractory to conventional DMARDs, the U.S. market is crowded with efficacious biologics, including the blockbuster tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) inhibitors Amgen’s Enbrel, AbbVie’s Humira, and Janssen’s Remicade, as well as non-TNF-alpha inhibitors such as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Orencia and Roche/Genentech’s Rituxan and Actemra. In addition, Pfizer’s JAK inhibitor Xeljanz, the first targeted oral treatment for RA, has been approved for almost six years in the United States and is gaining steady uptake in early lines of therapy. The FDA’s approval of Regeneron/Sanofi’s Kevzara in 2017 added a second IL-6 inhibitor to the armamentarium for RA.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

• What patient share do key therapies and brands garner by line of therapy in newly diagnosed RA patients? What are the quarterly trends in prescribing among recently treated and newly diagnosed RA patients?
• How have non-TNF-alpha inhibitor biologics and Xeljanz been integrated into the treatment algorithm?
• What proportion of RA patients receive drug therapy within three years of diagnosis and how quickly? What percentage of patients progress to later lines of therapy within three years of diagnosis?
• What percentage of RA patients are treated with monotherapy versus combination therapy? What are the most widely used combination therapies?
• What are the product-level compliance and persistency rates among drug-treated patients with RA?