Human Genome Sciences' Benlysta sales disappoint

US biotech firm Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq: HGSI) president and chief executive Thomas Watkins yesterday highlighted priority goals for 2012 and reported on progress with the commercialization of Benlysta (belimumab), the first approved drug for systemic lupus in 56 years which is partnered with UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), at the 30th Annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, revealing fourth-quarter 2011 sales of its new lupus drug that missed analysts' expectations, and reiterated challenges it faces in growing sales of the treatment.

“Thousands of patients with systemic lupus are now being treated with Benlysta,” said Mr Watkins. “We are pioneering a treatment in a market that has not seen a new option for patients in decades. Although we are still in the early adoption phase of our launch, our experience in the market to date reinforces our belief that Benlysta will ultimately play a major role in improving the standard of care for SLE patients,” he added.

Benlysta was approved on March 9, 2011 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of adult patients with active, autoantibody-positive systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who are receiving standard therapy. Benlysta was approved by the European Commission on July 13, 2011, and is now available in Canada and an increasing number of European countries, including Germany, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Norway and Sweden. HGS has built its own commercialization team to work alongside GSK in Europe, with headquarters in Switzerland and local organizations in Germany, France and Spain. Elsewhere, GSK leads local implementation, with HGS sharing costs and profits equally with GSK.