What other Crohns disease drugs are on the market, and how is Cimzia different?
The biggest rivals are Remicade from Johnson & Johnson and Abbott’s Humira, a drug currently approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis that’s expected to gain additional approval for use in Crohn’s. Both of these drugs are monoclonal antibodies, which are derived from very large molecules. These drugs require a lengthy, complex, and expensive manufacturing process. Because they’re large molecules, they tend to penetrate tissues poorly, so they must be administered by injection. Also, these larger antibodies can often trigger unwanted immune responses. In contrast, Cimzia is the next generation of antibodies. We use the smallest possible fragment of an antibody, called a nanobody. As these nanobodies are much smaller, they’re able to penetrate tissue in the body more easily. The big advantage with nanobodies, we believe, is that it requires a much simpler manufacturing process, which means that over time it will be a lot less expensive than monoclonal antibodies to produce. The way Cimzi
