Ulcerative colitis market set to double by 2018
pharmafile | February 12, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Humira, Simponi, TNF, ulcerative colitis
The market for ulcerative colitis drugs is set to double over the ten years to 2018 when it will hit $2.1 billion, according to a new report.
Looking at the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan, Decision Resources expects growth to be driven by uptake of Abbott’s Humira and Merck/Johnson and Johnson’s Simponi and increased patient diagnosis in the US.
The research firm said the two biologic treatments could prove to be effective alternatives to currently available maintenance therapies for patients with moderate to severe disease.
But the firm cautioned that uptake of the two TNF-alpha inhibitors could be limited by their high price.
Currently patients with severe, treatment refractory ulcerative colitis requiring hospitalisation are treated with intravenous corticosteroids, cyclosporine (the off-patient Sandimmune) and/or Johnson and Johnson’s Remicade.
In the longer term Decision Resources said pharma’s opportunities would lay in developing more-effective maintenance therapies with sustained long-term efficacy and new agents that treat severe and refractory forms of the disease.
“The short-term nature of corticosteroid treatment and the waning efficacy observed with immuno-suppressants and TNF-alpha inhibitors highlight the shortcomings of marketed products for ulcerative colitis both in induction and maintenance regimens,” said Decision Resources analyst Kathryn Benton.
“Additionally, although colectomy represents a curative treatment for the most severe forms of the disease for patients who do not respond to corticosteroids, cyclosporine or Remicade, many patients elect not to undergo surgery and seek more-effective alternatives to last-line pharmacological treatments.”
Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease that can cause ulcers on the lining of the colon.
It causes are unknown, though research suggests that both environmental and genetic factors are involved, and around 100,000 people in the UK are known to have the condition with symptoms appearing between the ages of 15 – 30.
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