[CarolynS]

Overall sales in PD drug market to decrease slightly by 2020

InfoGrokPharma (UK) Friday, 21 October 2011

Overall sales in Parkinson’s disease (PD) drug market will decrease slightly from $2.7 billion in 2010 to $2.6 billion in 2020 in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan, according to findings from Decision Resources.

Despite some key current therapies experiencing increased uptake during the forecast period and the launch of three new agents by 2020, sales of current agents and the market impact of emerging therapies will be offset by generic competition.

The three emerging therapies set to launch through 2020 are Impax Laboratories/GSK’s IPX-066, a reformulation of the mainstay of PD therapy, levodopa (multiple brands, generics), Merck Serono/EMD Serono/Newron’s MAO-B inhibitor safinamide and Kyowa Hakko Kirin’s adenosine A2A receptor antagonist istradefylline. IPX-066, and to a lesser extent safinamide, will contribute moderately to market growth, as both will contend with established agents within the same respective drug classes (which are often generically available), and that are commonly used in the patient populations targeted by the emerging therapies.

The first-in-class agent istradefylline will benefit from use in the management of motor response complications arising from levodopa treatment, but its overall impact will be modest as it is currently expected to launch only in Japan.