Enbrel
An anti-TNF biologic for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.
Where Etanercept is approved
All regulators →Of the three regulators tracked here, the first to approve Etanercept was the US, on 2 Nov 1998. It is approved in 3 of the 3 regulators tracked here.
- 2 FDA-approved biosimilars, 1 interchangeable: Erelzi, Eticovo
From the regulators' own registers: FDA Drugs@FDA, the EMA medicines list and Health Canada's Notice of Compliance database. Dates are the first listed approval of a product containing only this substance; combination products and nationally authorised EU medicines are not counted.
What health systems spend on Etanercept
All medicines →From NHSBSA Prescription Cost Analysis (Open Government Licence v3.0) and CMS State Drug Utilization Data. Both are gross amounts: neither system publishes its discounts or rebates per drug. Products combining several substances are not counted here.
How Etanercept works
All drug targets →- TNF-alpha inhibitor InhibitorTarget: TNF tumor necrosis factorChEMBL only
- AnorexiaPhase 3
- SciaticaPhase 3
- Stevens-Johnson syndromePhase 3
- Acute graft versus host diseasePhase 3
- Chronic kidney diseasePhase 3
- Enthesitis-related juvenile idiopathic arthritisPhase 3
- Extended oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritisPhase 3
- Myocardial ischemiaPhase 3
- Palmoplantar pustulosisPhase 3
- PneumoniaPhase 3
Mechanisms and diseases from ChEMBL via the Open Targets Platform (release 26.09), ChEMBL record CHEMBL1201572, CC BY-SA 3.0. Targets checked against the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (2026.3), ligand 6789, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trial phases are not approvals: approved uses are shown from the regulators' own records where we hold them.
NICE appraisals of Etanercept
All NICE appraisals →NICE, which decides whether the NHS in England should fund new medicines, has published 13 technology appraisals of Etanercept. 9 are current, and 9 of these recommend it for at least some patients. 4 older appraisals were replaced or withdrawn.
NICE decisions apply to the NHS in England. In Ireland the HSE decides on reimbursement, advised by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. Titles, categories and dates link to the guidance on nice.org.uk. © NICE 2026 technology appraisal guidance. Available from www.nice.org.uk/guidance. All rights reserved. Subject to Notice of rights. NICE guidance is prepared for the National Health Service in England. All NICE guidance is subject to regular review and may be updated or withdrawn. NICE accepts no responsibility for the use of its content in this product/publication.
Patient leaflets for Etanercept
The package leaflet is the official guide for patients that comes with every medicine. These links go to the regulators that publish it.
- IEIreland: 23 products on the HPRA listEach product record links to the HPRA, which publishes the leaflet and SmPC.
- EU
- UKUnited Kingdom: Search MHRA ProductsPatient information leaflets and SmPCs for UK-licensed products.
- USUnited States: Search DailyMedFDA-approved labels, including patient and medication guides.
Leaflets differ between brands and countries; always read the one that comes with your own medicine. This is regulatory information, not medical advice.
Reference identifiers for Etanercept
- ATC code
- L04AB01
- ChEMBL
- CHEMBL1201572
- DrugBank
- DB00005
- CAS number
- 185243-69-0
- FDA UNII
- OP401G7OJC
- Wikidata
- Q415343
- Wikipedia
- Etanercept
Codes that identify this medicine in other databases, from Wikidata (CC0), matched by its ChEMBL ID. The ATC code is the WHO classification of what the medicine is used for.
What Enbrel is used for
Enbrel is a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocker indicated for the treatment of: Adult patients with: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) ( 1.1 ) Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) ( 1.3 ) Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) ( 1.4 ) Plaque Psoriasis (PsO) ( 1.5 ) Pediatric patients with: Polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (pJIA), 2 years of age or older ( 1.2 ) Juvenile Psoriatic Arthritis, 2 years of age or older (JPsA) ( 1.6 ) Plaque Psoriasis, 4 years of age or older ( 1.5 ) 1.1 Rheumatoid Arthritis Enbrel is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms, inducing major clinical response, inhibiting the progression of structural damage, and improving physical function in patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Enbrel can be initiated in combination with methotrexate (MTX) or used alone. 1.2 Polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Enbrel is indicated for reducing signs and…
How it works
12.1 Mechanism of Action TNF is a naturally occurring cytokine that is involved in normal inflammatory and immune responses. It plays an important role in the inflammatory processes of RA, polyarticular JIA, PsA, and AS and the resulting joint pathology. In addition, TNF plays a role in the inflammatory process of PsO. Elevated levels of TNF are found in involved tissues and fluids of patients with RA, JIA, PsA, AS, and PsO. Two distinct receptors for TNF (TNFRs), a 55 kilodalton protein (p55) and a 75 kilodalton protein (p75), exist naturally as monomeric molecules on cell surfaces and in soluble forms. Biological activity of TNF is dependent upon binding to either cell surface TNFR. Etane…
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How this page is built
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
- FDA Drug Label (openFDA) ↗ Indications, mechanism of action and pharmacologic class
- Drugs@FDA ↗ First FDA approval date and the company holding the application
- FDA Drug Shortage Database ↗ Current US supply / shortage status
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 9 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.