Skyrizi, a key drug in Ab­b­Vie’s post-Hu­mi­ra fu­ture, has added an­oth­er feath­er to its cap.

On Tues­day, the IL-23 in­hibitor emerged su­pe­ri­or in a head-to-head 327-pa­tient tri­al against No­var­tis’ dom­i­nant Cosen­tyx in pa­tients with mod­er­ate-to-se­vere plaque pso­ri­a­sis.

Da­ta showed Skyrizi in­duced sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er rates of skin clear­ance com­pared to Cosen­tyx, meet­ing the pri­ma­ry goal of su­pe­ri­or­i­ty with at least a 90% im­prove­ment from base­line in the Pso­ri­a­sis Area and Sever­i­ty In­dex (PASI 90) at week 52. Over­all, 87% of Skyrizi-treat­ed pa­tients hit PASI 90, ver­sus 57% of Cosen­tyx-treat­ed pa­tients at the one year mark.

The oth­er main goal of non-in­fe­ri­or­i­ty at week 16 — 74% of Skyrizi pa­tients achieved PASI 90 com­pared to 66% of Cosen­tyx pa­tients — was al­so met. Skyrizi al­so eclipsed Cosen­tyx on all sec­ondary end­points, in­clud­ing PASI 100, and PASI 75.

In the fall of 2017, Skyrizi was eval­u­at­ed against J&J’s Ste­lara and its own Hu­mi­ra in a pso­ri­a­sis study — and emerged vic­to­ri­ous, hand­some­ly out­pac­ing the ri­val drugs in clear­ing pso­ri­a­sis.

These head-to-head stud­ies are key to es­tab­lish­ing Skyrizi’s po­si­tion in a crowd­ed mar­ket, which in­cludes Hu­mi­ra, No­var­tis’ an­ti-IL17 Cosen­tyx, J&J’s an­ti-IL23 Trem­fya, an­ti-IL12/23 Ste­lara, as well as Lil­ly’s an­ti-IL17 Taltz.

Skyrizi is not the first pure IL-23 in­hibitor to be ap­proved — Trem­fya was ap­proved in 2017 and Ilumya in 2018. But the Ab­b­Vie drug has a dos­ing ad­van­tage over Trem­fya — it is ad­min­is­tered every 12 weeks, ver­sus once every two months for Trem­fya, SVB Leerink’s Ge­of­frey Porges said on Wednes­day, not­ing that oth­er pso­ri­a­sis bi­o­log­ics in ad­di­tion to the oral Ote­zla gen­er­at­ed a com­bined $11.1 bil­lion in 2018 sales.

“This does not in­clude sales of an­ti-TN­Fs in pso­ri­a­sis, which should de­crease as pa­tients move to these new, more ef­fi­ca­cious ther­a­pies. These prod­ucts al­so all achieved $500 mil­lion – $1 bil­lion in the sec­ond year of launch, which is like­ly to al­so be achieved by Skyrizi,” SVB Leerink’s Ge­of­frey Porges wrote in a note last year.

“Over­all bi­o­log­ics are still used in on­ly 30% of the mod­er­ate to se­vere pso­ri­a­sis pop­u­la­tion, (per JNJ in 2017), and Ab­b­Vie’s Skyrizi should ben­e­fit from both best-in-cat­e­go­ry ef­fi­ca­cy (i.e. mar­ket share gains) and the con­tin­ued rapid mar­ket ex­pan­sion.”

Skyrizi was ap­proved in April 2019. Ab­b­Vie paid Boehringer In­gel­heim $595 mil­lion up­front to li­cense rights to the drug, known chem­i­cal­ly as risankizum­ab, in ear­ly 2016. Eval­u­ate has pegged Skyrizi as the num­ber 3 block­buster on its list of heavy­weight drugs launched in 2019, es­ti­mat­ing the drug could earn more than $2 bil­lion in 2024 — a far cry from Ab­b­Vie’s home­grown es­ti­mate of $4 bil­lion to $5 bil­lion in peak sales. Porges has fore­cast ad­just­ed peak an­nu­al sales of $3 bil­lion.

Last Au­gust, Lil­ly’s Taltz beat J&J’s Trem­fya in a head-to-head pso­ri­a­sis study. In 2018, J&J ran its own head-to-head pso­ri­a­sis tri­al against Cosen­tyx — and came out with da­ta that showed Trem­fya su­per­seded No­var­tis’ dom­i­nant ri­val.

So­cial im­age: Ab­b­Vie

Fewer Approvals, but Neurology Rivals Oncology and Sees Major Innovations

This report, the fourth in our Trinity Drug Index series, outlines key themes and emerging trends in the industry as we progress towards a new world of targeted and innovative products. It provides a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of novel drugs approved by the FDA in 2016, scoring each on its commercial performance, therapeutic value, and R&D investment (Table 1: Drug ranking – Ratings on a 1-5 scale).

For start-up biotechnology companies and resource stretched pharmaceutical organisations, launching a novel product can be challenging. Lean teams can make setting a launch strategy and achieving your commercial goals seem like a colossal undertaking, but can these barriers be transformed into opportunities that work to your brand’s advantage?
We spoke to Managing Consultant Frances Hendry to find out how Blue Latitude Health partnered with a fledgling subsidiary of a pharmaceutical organisation to launch an innovative product in a
complex market.
What does the launch environment look like for this product?
FH: We started working on the product at Phase II and now we’re going into Phase III trials. There is a significant unmet need in this disease area, and everyone is excited about the launch. However, the organisation is still evolving and the team is quite small – naturally this causes a little turbulence.

Every few years, a public health crisis (think Ebola, Zika) spurred by a rogue pathogen triggers a small-biotech rally, as drugmakers emerge from the woodwork with ambitious plans to treat the mounting outbreak. In most cases, that enthusiasm never quite delivers.

Things are no different, as the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China takes hold. There have been close to 300 confirmed human infections in China, and at least four deaths. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, which include MERS and SARS. On Tuesday, the CDC reported the virus was detected in a US traveler returning from Wuhan.

Two and a half years after launch, Merck KGaA spinout iOnctura is getting its first major round of funding.

The oncology startup raised €15 million ($16.6 million) to put its lead drug into the clinic and get its second drug past IND-enabling tests. INKEF Capital and VI Partners co-led the round and were joined by the biotech’s longtime backer M Ventures, an arm of Merck KGaA, and Schroder Adveq.