IL-6 is plays an important role in many indications. Roche has a...

IL-6 is plays an important role in many indications. Roche has a recently approved product (2010) which targets (blocks)IL-6 and is being used as a combination therapy with methotrexate for RA fo people not responding to existing treatments..it has side effects..
This product is driving growth for Roche and has had rapid increase in sales since approval last year. Sales are in the $hundreds of millions with future expectations of blockbuster $1billion plus.
I would suspect a product regulating IL-6 to normal levels with no side effects would therefore be of extreme interest to pharma in the ever expanding combination therapy market.

The release mentions Time to achieve at least a 50% improvement in symptoms was statistically significant and number of ACR70's increased over time however there was no information on how many of these occured..or what the ACR 20 response was at week 24. I wonder if this is information that can be found out?
It also is said that there was a large variance of the absorption of the drug due to the formulation not being optimal for injection under the skin. I wonder if there is information that can can be found out as to differences between patients who had a higher % take up in the bloodstream to those who had little?


Judging by the comments on this forum it would seem that most are more concerned with management risks than the science. I would hope that the pre-agreed licencing upfront and milestone payments with Novo are a far cry away from the result the company leaders expect to acheive