Posted on about 8 years ago by Gerry Kennedy
Sanofi ($SNY) and Regeneron ($REGN), awaiting FDA approval for a potential blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis treatment, burnished the drug's profile with Phase III data showing it beat AbbVie's ($ABBV) top-selling Humira head to head.
The treatment, sarilumab, is an antibody targeting the inflammation-related protein interleukin-6 to treat autoimmune disease. In a late-stage trial enrolling 369 patients, the therapy beat out Humira in clearing up rheumatoid arthritis symptoms after 24 weeks by a statistically significant margin, at the same time meeting secondary goals of improving disease scores and physical function, Sanofi and Regeneron said.
On the safety side, the two treatments came through with similar rates of the most common side effects, according to the companies, but sarilumab led to more instances of neutropenia, which affected 14% of patients versus just 1% of those taking Humira.