New treatments to boost dry eye drug market – if approved
pharmafile | November 5, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Allergan, Ikervis, Restasis, Shire, cyclosporine, dry eye disease, dry eye syndrome, lifitegrast
The global market for treatments for dry eye syndrome will double in value to an estimated $4.6 billion by 2024, according to analysts’ predictions.
This represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.9%, according to the research and consulting firm GlobalData.
Global Data’s latest report states that this rise, which will occur across the nine major markets of the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan, China, and India. It will be driven primarily by the introduction of novel drugs, most notably Shire’s lifitegrast, a first-in-class drug with anti-inflammatory benefits.
The market will be boosted significantly if Shire’s dry eye treatment, lifitegrast, is approved, the report predicts. Lifitegrast is an investigational integrin antagonist for the topical treatment of dry eye disease. In October 2015, Shire put the drug forward to the FDA for approval who requested an additional clinical study as part of a complete response letter (CRL) to the company’s new drug application.
In the UK NICE is set to approve another dry eye treatment for use in the NHS. NICE issues a positive final appraisal determination recommending the use of Santen’s Ikervis (ciclosporin) for the treatment of severe keratitis in adult patients with dry eye disease, which has not improved despite treatment with tear substitutes.
Catherine Daly, GlobalData’s senior analyst covering neurology and ophthalmology, says: “GlobalData expects that lifitegrast, which is anticipated to launch in the US in late 2016, will eventually reach peak sales of $1 billion across the nine major markets, earning the drug blockbuster status.”
“Allergan’s blockbuster dry eye syndrome drug, Restasis, which generated an estimated $1.33 billion in US sales in 2014, is expected to launch in the European markets during the forecast period and will secure a sizable patient share.”
It is thought the paucity of dry eye syndrome treatments in the US and European markets will allow Shire to secure strong uptake and a sizable market share for lifitegrast. Despite this, considerable opportunities remain within the dry eye syndrome arena, as there are currently very few approved treatment options.
Daly went on to say: “Better understanding of dry eye syndrome is revealing new therapeutic targets, and therefore is increasing the opportunities to develop novel therapeutics that can offer clinical benefits for certain patients. There is also a need to simplify dosing for patients who have the daily burden of self-administering multiple eye drops, which could be met with the development of long-acting drugs.”
Yasmita Kumar
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