The Enbrel space
It's no secret that Immunex Corp. can't make enough of its Enbrel etanercept rheumatoid arthritis drug to meet demand. With every passing day, there is the potential that new patients will start taking the one competing anti-TNF drug, Johnson & Johnson's Remicade anti-TNF chimeric monoclonal antibody, which is approved for both RA and Crohn's disease.
IMNX also faces the possibility that it won't have ramped up production before a third compound is approved in the TNF space: Abbott Laboratories' D2E7 human anti-TNF antibody. ABT, which gained rights to D2E7 from Cambridge Antibody (LSE:CAT; CATG) through its acquisition of Knoll Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter of this year, plans to submit a BLA to the FDA in the second quarter of 2002 and hopes for approval in the first half of 2003...