Eighty-Nine Percent of Surveyed Rheumatologists Say They Will Prescribe Roche/Chugai's Actemra for Rheumatoid...( However Pharmacy Directors Disagre...),Health

However, Pharmacy Directors Disagree About Formulary Inclusion for Key Emerging Biologic Agents That Will Launch for the Disease in the Next Few

Years, According to a New Report from Decision Resources

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that 89 percent of surveyed rheumatologists anticipate prescribing Roche/Chugai's Actemra, following the expected launch of the drug for rheumatoid arthritis in 2009. Surveyed rheumatologists indicated they would prescribe Actemra, an interleukin-6 inhibitor, to an estimated 10 percent of their patients six months after the drug's launch. On July 29, 2008, the Food and Drug Administration's Arthritis Advisory Committee recommended Actemra's approval for rheumatoid arthritis. Although some panel members expressed concern about data that suggested the potential for negative side effects, the committee indicated that clinical trials supported Actemra's efficacy.

The new Physician & Payer Forum report, Biologics in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Physician and Payer Perspective on Recently Launched and Emerging Biologics in Rheumatoid Arthritis, finds that rheumatologists are highly receptive to the many new agents expected to launch by 2011, but they may face increasing barriers to reimbursement and limited access to novel biological agents.

In addition to Actemra, the other emerging biologic agents included in the report survey are UCB's Cimzia, Centocor/Schering-Plough/Mitsubishi Tanabe/Janssen's golimumab and Biogen Idec/Genentech/Roche's ocrelizumab. The report finds that managed care organizations' (MCO) pharmacy directors disagree on the likelihood of formulary inclusion for key emerging biologics as their expectations varied widely in response to whether they will include these agents on their formularies. Pharmacy directors may be reserving judgment on key biologic agents un
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