Takeda's Uloric making inroads in moderate-to -severe gout patients, but allopurinol has vast market share lead

4 September 2011

Most surveyed rheumatologists, nephrologists and primary care physicians cite increased use of Uloric (febuxostat), from Japan’s largest drugmaker Takeda (TYO: 4502), in the last six months. Global sales of Uloric reached 2 billion yen ($26 million yen) in the first fiscal quarter, up more than 50% year-on-year (The Pharma Letter August 2).

In addition, half of rheumatologists and 26% of nephrologists surveyed cite increased use of Savient Pharmaceuticals’ (Nasdaq: SVNT) Krystexxa (pegloticase) in the same time period, based on the recent TreatmentTrends: Gout report published by BioTrends Research, a Decision Resources unit. Uloric outperforms other uric acid lowering (UAL) therapies on most attributes including efficacy and short-term safety/tolerability while newcomer Krystexxa, which was approved in the USA last year (TPL September 15, 2010), holds only a single competitive advantage over Uloric.

Krystexxa rated highly satisfactory by 55% of rheumatologists

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