TNF franchise planning

With the U.S. patent covering Enbrel etanercept set to expire in 2012, Wyeth is looking at ways to secure its anti-TNF alpha franchise beyond that date. As part of that strategy, the company's Wyeth Pharmaceuticals division was to announce on Monday this week that it has signed an exclusive research collaboration and license agreement with Ablynx N.V. to gain access to the Belgian company's nanobody platform to discover, develop and commercialize molecules to inhibit TNF alpha activity in all therapeutic areas.

In 2005, Enbrel was used in more than 365,000 patients and achieved global sales of $3.7 billion. It is the number one biologic therapy for both rheumatoid arthritis and dermatology, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. WYE (Madison, N.J.) shares Enbrel in the U.S. with partner Amgen Inc. (AMGN, Thousand Oaks, Calif.), while it has 100% of sales ex-U.S., a market that WYE forecasts will grow 24% year on year from $1 billion in 2005 to $3 billion in 2010...