Humira, as noted in a post today in Xconomy, will rise to the number one revenue producing drug in the world in 2012 -- estimated at $9.3 B -- thus supplanting the old champ Lipitor that has reached its patent expiry. This is the first time that a biological drug is in the number one spot and perhaps marks a watershed when bio drugs take over from their small molecule bretheren.
According to Reuters data, Abbott's Humira is not only number one, but J&J's Remicade and Amgen's Enbrel are numbers two and three. Thus, biological drugs, that are all anti-TNF, hold the top three slots. And according to Reuters, 8 of the top 10 drugs are now biologicals. That's an amazing emergence -- Humira is entering its 8th year on the market and was the third drug of its type in its class. Hurrah!
From here on out, it looks like biologicals will now drive the growth of the world pharmaceutical market, and in addition to the leading Mab drugs we see now, we'll likely see many more non-Mab drugs emerge as the orphan disease classes begin to be better served.
Posted by Bruce Lehr Apr 16th 2012.
Probably a cheaper cost of development and manufacturing of biologics derived from future technical developments, should help increase the use of these drugs.
Posted by: Manuel | 04/21/2012 at 07:44 PM