New autoimmune drugs - Shorts - Brief Article

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Feb-March, 2004  by Jule Klotter

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New bioengineered drugs that target individual immune-related proteins are now available to people with autoimmune diseases. Unlike older drugs such as cortisone, the new ones do not suppress the entire immune system. Unfortunately, the difficulties of developing and making these precise drugs translate to a much higher price tag. Human testing reveals that many fail to work according to the theory behind their design. Enbrel, a drug for rheumatoid arthritis produced by Amgen, was originally developed as a treatment against sepsis. It failed to save the lives of sepsis patients during clinical trials, but it did show "unexpected benefit" for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's. Other studies have found that Enbrel helps people with psoriasis, another autoimmune disorder--although scientists cannot explain why. Making Enbrel involves culturing hamster-ovary cells to obtain "a billion trillion copies of a single protein." According to a Wall Street Journal article, "Simple errors can contaminate a batch valued at several million dollars." Enbrel costs a patient more than $14,000 a year.

"The new drugs don't work for everyone, and they don't come cheaply," says the Wall Street Journal. Amevive, a psoriasis drug made by Biogen, brings about a seven-month remission on average after a 12-week treatment that costs $7,000 to $10,000. Remicade, a bioengineered rheumatoid arthritis drug made by Johnson & Johnson, costs up to $16,000 wholesale for one year. Medicare will pay for Remicade because the drug requires intravenous administration at a doctor's office. The market for these bioengineered autoimmune drugs is expected to reach as much as $14 billion by 2010.

Hamilton, David P. New Battleground For Biotech Drugs: Autoimmune Ills. The Wall Street Journal 5 November 2003.

COPYRIGHT 2004 The Townsend Letter Group
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