Dive Brief:
- Swiss pharma giant Novartis last week announced its IL-17A inhibitor Cosentyx won two new indications in the U.S. to now include the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in adults.
- Cosentyx was previously approved in the U.S. in January 2015 for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, while it gained European approval for AS and PsA last November.
- The expanded label was based on the results of four Phase 3 studies which included more than 1,500 adult AS or PsA patients.
Dive Insight:
As many as 40% of AS and PsA patients do not respond to other standard biologic drugs designed to treat both conditions. Cosentyx (secukinumab) is an monoclonal antibody which inhibits the circulation of the cytokine IL-17A—high levels of which are associated with inflammatory diseases.
Up to 0.5% of the US population has AS, and nearly 1% suffer from PsA. Since its launch in the U.S. in early 2015, Cosentyx has pulled in $140 million in sales (as of the third quarter). However, $88 million of those sales came in the third quarter alone, indicating some acceleration. In fact, even before last week's expanded label, Cosentyx was on track to nab somewhere between $4 billion and $5 billion in sales by 2020, according to some analyst projections.
With these new approvals, Cosentyx is the first IL-17A inhibitor approved for adults with AS and PsA in the U.S.