Prana: Alzheimer drug shows promise

Prana's [PRAN] positive pilot trial results offer hope for millions of Alzheimer's sufferers, whose treatments are limited by symptomatic effect only. PBT-1 is becoming an increasingly attractive in-licensing opportunity and, assuming safety and disease modifying ability is shown in large trials, it has potential to grab a large share of this multi-billion dollar market.

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Japanese pharmaceutical companies: Survival through improved R&D

The Japanese market is the second largest pharmaceutical market globally, after the US. The market is therefore an attractive target for western companies' expansion plans. The building of strong in-house R&D capabilities will be central to Japanese Pharma companies' strategies for survival. However, improving R&D capabilities will not be achieved by increasing spending alone.

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Mycamine - bolstering the antifungal armory

Fujisawa's Mycamine is the second product in the novel class of the echinocandins to be approved for use in the US. Mycamine has witnessed rapid uptake in its first market, Japan, generating $106 million of sales in 2004. Indeed, the staggered geographic launch of the drug, made necessary by delays in gaining approval in the US and EU, may actually contribute to its future commercial success.

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Western invasion threatens Japanese pharma's survival

After the US, the Japanese market is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world, with estimated sales of $54 billion in 2003. While the size of the Japanese market makes it an attractive target for western companies' expansion plans, domestic players are finding it increasingly difficult to survive.

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Novel combinations breathe new life into COPD market

There are 31.2 million COPD sufferers in the US, Europe and Japan - a prevalence rate of approximately 4.4% of the general population. Thus, the development of novel dual-action, once-daily inhaled therapies will provide important new treatment options for COPD and play a major role in the expansion of the market over the next decade.

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Cancer therapies: cytotoxics rise and fall

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Takeda: an East wind blows good for Blopress

Japanese regulators have approved Takeda's Blopress in chronic heart failure (CHF), proving Takeda's lifecycle management strategy for the drug successful. Furthermore, the approval makes Blopress the first angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) to be approved in CHF in all of the major pharmaceutical markets - Japan, the US and Europe - giving it a significant strategic advantage in this indication.

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Daiichi Sankyo: ACAT inhibitor is back in the bag

Daiichi Sankyo has halted clinical development of its heart drug candidate CS-505 following its poor performance in an atherosclerosis study. This will be a significant blow to the company as many industry spectators had predicted blockbuster status for the drug. However, the news will please Pfizer and Roche, which are both developing novel atherosclerosis treatments themselves.

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Pfizer: a triumph of the heart

Pfizer's share price has surged on news that the company has successfully defended two key Lipitor patents, deferring the threat of generic competition until 2011. This will enable Pfizer to proceed with plans to switch Lipitor patients to its controversial phase III torcetrapib and atorvastatin combination product before Lipitor is affected by generic competition, safeguarding its revenue stream.

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Idenix/Novartis: filing for hepatitis hope

Idenix/Novartis have filed for FDA approval of their antiviral telbivudine. If approved, the drug candidate would become the fourth nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor available to treat hepatitis B in the US. A strong efficacy and safety profile should ensure robust sales for the product, although it is set to face stiff competition in various markets.

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