Rheumatoid Arthritis: Sirukumab Presents Safety Issues
Drugs related to sirukumab
If approved, sirukumab would be in competition with two other similar drugs: Actemra and Kevzara. Actemra is Roche Holding AG's IL-6 inhibitor and Kevzara, which is the development of Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., a newly approved IL-6 drug therapy.
According to Thomson Reuters data, the average analytical global sales forecasts for Kevzara (also called sarilumab) are expected to rise about $660 million by the year 2020. If sirukumab is approved, analysts predict the sales could reach $450 million by 2020.
Damien Conover, a Morningstar analyst, does not believe that either sirukumab (if approved) or Kevzara are threats to the success of Actemra. Conover states that neither sirukumab nor Kevzara are different enough to gain much traction in the market for RA drugs.
