Immunology remains one of biopharma’s largest and most competitive markets, with older blockbusters creating both a benchmark and an opening for newer mechanisms. BioSpace’s review of six major immunology targets argues that the next growth cycle is taking shape as companies pursue broader, more flexible target classes that can support multiple autoimmune and inflammatory indications.
The commercial starting point is still set by a handful of franchises. AbbVie’s Humira was the world’s top-selling drug for nearly a decade from 2012 to 2020, and still generated $20.7 billion in sales in 2021 after being overtaken by Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty. Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent brought in $17.8 billion in 2025, though key U.S. exclusivity lasts into 2031. DelveInsight’s Stuti Mahajan told BioSpace that AbbVie remains the commercial benchmark, even as the company shifts toward Skyrizi and Rinvoq.
The commercial picture
The signal from the current field is that immunology growth is no longer centered only on finding another anti-TNF-scale product. It is increasingly about building “pipeline-in-a-product” targets and using format innovation to widen addressable populations. Mahajan said Johnson & Johnson has “the most strategically complete portfolio” with Tremfya, Icotyde, Imaavy and additional programs, while Bristol Myers Squibb is pairing Sotyktu with next-generation cell therapies and Merck is advancing the TL1A inhibitor tulisokibart for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
That framing helps explain why FcRn has drawn so much attention. William Blair’s Matt Phipps told BioSpace the receptor has become one of the bigger immunology targets because it recycles IgG antibodies and prolongs their lifespan, sustaining autoreactive antibody activity. Mahajan called FcRn one of the most valuable targets now because it offers “the broadest theoretical pipeline-in-a-product potential.”
Johnson & Johnson’s Imaavy is already approved for generalized myasthenia gravis and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia, with development continuing in systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren’s disease, fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia and idiopathic inflammatory myopathy. Argenx’s Vyvgart is approved for generalized myasthenia gravis, while Vyvgart Hytrulo is approved for generalized myasthenia gravis and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Immunovant’s imeroprubart, or IMVT-1402, is in Phase 3 studies across several autoimmune conditions, although the company recently stopped pursuing lupus after a mid-stage failure. UCB Pharma also has the FDA-approved Rystiggo.
The data
STAT6 is another target that BioSpace identifies as commercially important because of its role in B-cell activity and its connection to disorders including atopic dermatitis, asthma and food allergies. Phipps said the target is attractive in part because of the possibility of creating an “oral Dupixent,” since Dupixent’s IL-4 and IL-13 targets sit upstream of STAT6.
Kymera Therapeutics is one of the leaders here with KT-621, an oral degrader being tested in atopic dermatitis and asthma. In Phase 1b data presented in March, Kymera reported deep STAT6 degradation at 100-mg and 200-mg dose levels in moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, with median reductions of 94% in the skin and 98% in the blood. The company also reported robust reductions in several type 2 inflammatory blood biomarkers. The study’s primary endpoint is safety, and Kymera said the March readout was favorable, with no serious or severe adverse events and no discontinuations due to treatment-emergent adverse events. Data from the Phase 2b BROADEN2 study are expected by the end of this year.
Nurix Therapeutics and Sanofi are also in the STAT6 race with the oral degrader SAR448272/NX-3911, which last month moved into Phase 1 for type 2 inflammatory diseases. The broader market implication is that oral approaches against validated biology may become one of the clearest routes to differentiation in a crowded immunology field, especially where incumbents are highly effective but injectable and already deeply penetrated.
