With its Allergan merger likely in the final stages, AbbVie is placing its hopes in a pair of home-grown drugs to help weather biosimilar attacks against Humira. One of those, JAK inhibitor Rinvoq, just snagged a big win from England's cost watchdog.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended AbbVie's Rinvoq, added to standard-of-care methotrexate, for coverage on the National Health Service as a treatment for severe rheumatoid arthritis, according to draft guidance published Friday.
Rinvoq, with a list price of £805.56 ($1,058.06) per 28-day pack and average annual cost per patient of £10,508 ($13,801), will come with a confidential discount, NICE said.
Despite the win in severe RA, though, NICE knocked down Rinvoq's application to treat moderate RA, arguing the drug's price didn't hit its cost-effectiveness standard in that indication.
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The NICE win for Rinvoq comes as the drug has emerged as somewhat of a physician darling in its few months on the U.S. market.
In December, a rheumatologist survey conducted by Spherix Global Insights showed about half of 100 physicians would prescribe Rinvoq over other JAK inhibitors, specifically citing AbbVie's "stewardship" of the drug as a positive for prescribing, Piper analyst Christopher Raymond said in a note to investors.
Part of the reason for that confidence? A "famous AbbVie halo," Raymond wrote, that has given some rheumatologists confidence in prescribing the drug despite Pfizer's JAK med Xeljanz having a seven-year head start in the field.
Among the rheumatologists surveyed, 33% said they would be "early adopters" of Rinvoq solely because of AbbVie's involvement, Raymond said. The drugmaker has also put big marketing resources behind Rinvoq, Raymond said, with a full-court press similar to its Humira efforts and marketing penetration far outpacing other JAK brands.
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Alongside psoriasis med Skyrizi, AbbVie's other major launch in the past year, Rinvoq is giving the drugmaker hopes that it can persevere once U.S. biosimilars for megablockbuster Humira hit the market in 2023.
At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference earlier this month, AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez posited that Rinvoq and Skyrizi together could conceivably reach peak combined sales of $20 billion––roughly matching Humira's global peak.
Skyrizi, which launched in April, has scooped up about 25% of the “in-play” market share, Gonzalez said, referring to new patients and patients switching treatments. Rinvoq hit the market in August and has gained about 9% of the “in-play” share.
But AbbVie is just getting started. Even as the company launches the meds in those initial fields, it’s planning to seek new uses for the drugs until they can treat all the diseases Humira can—plus one other that's blockbuster-worthy in itself.
Over time, Rinvoq and Skyrizi “will have all of the major indications that Humira has when fully built out, plus one that Humira doesn’t have, which is atopic dermatitis,” Gonzalez said at the conference, throwing down a gauntlet to Sanofi and Regeneron, who have $10 billion hopes for their entry in that field, Dupixent.
Since its approval, Rinvoq has hit just $14 million in sales with fourth-quarter earnings due next week. But it's already outpacing expectations in terms of reimbursement, where it was set to secure 75% commercial market access by this month, according to UBS analyst Navin Jacob.
