Abstract
Espicom' s best-selling CNS Drug Discoveries: what the future holds provides a
comprehensive examination of 5 major CNS therapy areas: multiple sclerosis,
Alzheimer' s disease, Parkinson' s disease, schizophrenia and depression. The
information below and the ordering information on this page relate to the
Parkinson' s disease chapter. To find out more about the full report, click
here.
In 2007, approximately US$3.6 billion was spent on the symptomatic treatment
of Parkinson' s disease (PD). Although this neurodegenerative disease affects
approximately 1% of the population its prevalence increases with age, thus it
is likely to become more commonplace due to patient demographics and become a
greater burden to healthcare payers.
PD patients are treated with a cocktail of drugs which are adapted to the
patients' needs as the disease progresses. There is no cure and current
therapies are relatively effective at treating the symptoms in the early
stages but less so in advanced PD, and there remain significant side effects.
Whilst generic levodopa remains the cornerstone of treatment and is widely
available relatively cheaply, its chronic use is not necessarily limited by
budget, but by its long-term effectiveness. Hence, the more costly dopamine
agonists have gained utility in the treatment of the early stage of the
disease helping to spare levodopa treatment.
However, over the next six years many of the leading dopamine agonists face
patent expiration, enabling generics to become more freely available.
Meanwhile some companies have new improved dopamine agonists in their
pipelines such as Solvay' s pardoprunox or more potent monoamine oxidase
inhibitors such as Merck KGaA/Newron' s safinamide.
Some companies have picked up the gauntlet and run to develop new
disease-modifying agents which could revolutionise the way advanced PD is
treated. For example, Bayer' s high-risk, high-reward approach to developing
spheramine is a novel cell therapy that may halt the progression of PD.
Key PD questions answered include:
- What percentage of the treatable population for PD has been diagnosed in
Europe, US and Japan?
- Which PD products will face generic challenges by 2014?
- What are the commercial prospects for Bayer' s revolutionary
disease-modifying agent spheramine?
- By 2014, Boehringer Ingelheim and GSK will have lost considerable PD
market share - to whom and what products will make the difference?
Key products analysed and forecast
- Apokyn - Britannia/Ipsen
- Azilect - Lundbeck/Teva Pharmaceuticals
- Comtan franchise - Novartis/Orion
- Istradefylline - Kyowa Hakko
- Mirapex - Boehringer Ingelheim
- Neupro - UCB
- Pardoprunox - Solvay
- Requip - GlaxoSmithKline
- Safinamide - Merck KGaA/Newron
- Spheramine - Bayer/Titan Pharmaceuticals
View Cart
