Adalimumab

Product Description

Adalimumab, sold under the trade name Humira among others, is a medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, chronic psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. In rheumatoid arthritis, adalimumab has a response rate similar to methotrexate, and in combination, it nearly doubles the response rate of methotrexate alone.^[1]

Adalimumab is a TNF-inhibiting, anti-inflammatory, biologic medication. It binds to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF), which normally binds to TNF receptors, leading to the inflammatory response of autoimmune diseases. By binding to TNF, adalimumab reduces this inflammatory response. Because TNF is also part of the immune system, which protects the body from infection, treatment with adalimumab may increase the risk of infections.

Humira costs approximately $3,100 per month, like the TNF inhibitor etanercept. From 2012 to US patent expiry in 2016, Humira led the list of top-selling pharmaceutical products, and in 2016, it had $16 billion of global sales.^[2] Also in 2014, in India, the first adalimumab biosimilar came to market at a price of $200. Two years later, another Indian drugmaker, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, launched a second biosimilar.^[3] Humira's U.S. patent expired in 2016.^[4]