Pfizer lands FDA approval for $6.7B ulcerative colitis drug, taking on antibodies as an oral alternative

Pfiz­er has se­cured an FDA ap­proval for etrasi­mod in mod­er­ate to se­vere ul­cer­a­tive col­i­tis. It’s the sec­ond sphin­go­sine-1-phos­phate (S1P) drug to ar­rive on the UC mar­ket af­ter Bris­tol My­ers Squibb’s Zeposia.

Etrasi­mod, to be mar­ket­ed as Vel­sip­i­ty, is an oral S1P re­cep­tor mod­u­la­tor to be tak­en once a day. While it will com­pete with Zeposia, Pfiz­er will al­so have to dis­tin­guish the drug from a host of oth­er treat­ments, in­clud­ing steroids and bi­o­log­ics. Pfiz­er has set a whole­sale ac­qui­si­tion cost of $6,164 for a 30-day bot­tle, or $75,000 per year, which Ever­core ISI not­ed is mid­dle of the pack among ex­ist­ing op­tions. A spok­ersper­son said the drug will be avail­able in the US start­ing in late No­vem­ber.

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