According to data and analytics company, GlobalData, new real-world evidence will support the use of a biosimilar treatment for Crohn’s disease (CD), leading to a boost in the biosimilar market value.
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This prediction has been made after the 12-month data from the Personalised Anti-TNF therapy in Crohn’s disease Study (PANTS) were presented at the 13th Congress of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization (ECCO). The results from this study demonstrated the comparable efficacy of Celltrion’s CT-P13 (infliximab biosimilar) to the reference product — Johnson and Johnson’s Remicade (infliximab) — as well as AbbVie’s Humira (adalimumab).
“Given the dearth of head-to-head trial data, this is expected to bolster the use of biosimilars, and lead to cost-effective treatment strategies for patients with CD,” revealed Lakshmi Dharmarajan, associate director of Immunology at GlobalData. “Many key opinion leaders interviewed by GlobalData believe that biosimilars are as safe and effective as the branded biologics, but have emphasized the need for additional clinical data. Therefore, the findings from PANTS will support the use of infliximab biosimilars over the originator brands.”
PANTS was conducted in the UK and included 1,601 patients with active CD who were treatment naïve to anti-tumour necrosis factor drugs. After 12-months of treatment, the researchers found that remission rates were 40%, 40% and 34% for Remicade, infliximab biosimilar and Humira groups, respectively.
Next steps will involve real-world evidence that support the switch from originator treatment to biosimilar in CD. Key opinion leaders that were interviewed by GlobalData expressed concern about the psychological impact of switching treatments for those patients that are stable on Remicade, as the current use of infliximab biosimilars is mostly restricted to infliximab-naïve patients — which was the focus of PANTS.
“Consequently, future clinical trials as well as real-world switching studies demonstrating the continued safety and efficacy of biosimilar use would go a long way in entrenching these cost-effective agents firmly into the CD pharmaceutical armamentarium,” Dharmarajan concluded. “This in turn will help drive the biosimilar market for the disease, which was estimated to be worth $32.6 million across the seven major markets in 2016, and is expected to grow to $1.4 billion in 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of 45.2%.”
