Decision Resources' Updated Rheumatoid Arthritis Report Now Includes Forecast for Rigel Pharmaceuticals' Fostamatini...( WALTHAM Mass. Aug. 6 /- D...),Health

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, today released its updated Pharmacor Rheumatoid Arthritis report which now includes patient share and sales forecasts through 2018 for Rigel Pharmaceuticals' investigational novel oral agent, fostamatinib disodium (R788). The report update is based on Rigel Pharmaceuticals' recent announcement regarding additional Phase II clinical data for fostamatinib disodium.

The report finds that, owing to its impressive efficacy, the spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) inhibitor fostamatinib disodium will likely precede TNF-alpha inhibitors such as Amgen/Wyeth/Takeda's Enbrel and Abbott/Eisai's Humira in the treatment cascade for rheumatoid arthritis. Phase II data shows that fostamatinib disodium's efficacy is comparable to that of currently-available biologic agents in patients with inadequate response to treatment with methotrexate. According to the report, if the agent is priced lower than currently-available biologics, physicians may be willing to prescribe fostamatinib disodium as an alternative to premium-priced biologics.

However, Decision Resources conservatively forecasts that fostamatinib disodium's patient share will reach up to 1.8 percent and it will garner major-market sales of $330 million in 2018.

"Fostamatinib disodium's patient share and sales will be considerably lower than our evaluation of the other novel oral agent in development for rheumatoid arthritis--Pfizer's Jak-3 inhibitor CP-690550," said Decision Resources Analyst Joanna Kim, M.Ed. "Fostamatinib disodium's impact is likely to be less than that of CP-690550 because of uncertainties about its efficacy in the TNF-refractory population and the absence of a head-to-head trial against a TNF-alpha inhibitor."

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