Advanced Life Sciences: aiming for second place with cethromycin

Published By Datamonitor

AIDS 2010: promising developments for novel HIV agents and strategies

Given the abundance of therapeutic options for HIV treatment, companies are increasingly looking to simplify therapy through the development of cross-class combinations and nucleoside-sparing strategies to minimize toxicity. Many of the pipeline drugs highlighted at this year's International AIDS Conference brought this new direction of development into focus.

Published By Datamonitor

Avexa: apricitabine shelving demonstrates obstacles for new HIV drugs in FDC-dominated market

Melbourne-based biotech Avexa has announced the closure of its lead HIV program for apricitabine after failing to attract a licensing partner for the Phase III drug. In the increasingly competitive HIV market, once-daily cross-class fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) will drive future growth, dwarfing the commercial opportunity for single nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors like apricitabine.

Published By Datamonitor

Basilea: FDA issues approvable letter for ceftobiprole

Basilea has received an approvable letter from the FDA for its new drug, ceftobiprole. Against the backdrop of investigations into the safety of Ketek, and considering the scrutiny Telavancin has endured, the letter is yet another indication of the FDA's more rigorous and defensive approach to the drug approval process.

Published By Datamonitor

Battle for HIV drug market share getting fiercer

The HIV market, worth $9.3 billion in 2007, is expected to grow to $15.1 billion by 2017, driven by the increasing prevalence of HIV worldwide and the longer life expectancy of patients receiving treatment. Despite this growth, the competition is getting tougher across all antiretroviral drug classes, which may cause some of the big players in the HIV market to opt out or be squeezed out.

Published By Datamonitor

Brazilian patent threat poses challenge to big pharma

Relying on its reputation as a world leader in HIV/AIDS drug pricing negotiations, Brazil is threatening to disregard patents unless Abbott Laboratories, Gilead Sciences and Merck & Co. allow it to produce generic versions of their four leading AIDS drugs. Datamonitor's Mar Ferrero investigates the likely ramifications of such a move...

Published By Datamonitor

Breaking Merck patent may drive investment away from Brazil

Brazil's government will bypass Merck's patent on HIV drug Sustiva in order to manufacture this best-selling NNRTI as a lower-priced generic. Although this will increase therapy-access for many HIV/AIDS patients, it will intensify concerns over parallel imports into Western markets, according to Datamonitor's HIV analyst Lisette Oversteegen.

Published By Datamonitor

Can biologic drugs tackle antibiotic resistance?

Antibody-based products present a novel approach to the treatment and prevention of infections, as an alternative to conventional antibiotics. Several companies are developing such agents for a range of indications, but their cost, complex manufacturing methods and mode of administration are restrictive. A high unmet need and well defined target groups are key to commercial success in this market.

Published By Datamonitor

Changing of the guard in HIV treatment

The HIV market is forecast to grow from $7.1 billion in 2005 to an estimated $10.6 billion in 2015. This growth is to be driven by a combination of several factors, including an increase in the number of people diagnosed, and the launch of several new drugs and drug classes which offer new hope to patients who otherwise would have at-best limited, but perhaps no therapeutic options left at all.

Published By Datamonitor

Concert: protease inhibitor holds potential to be prescribed un-boosted

US healthcare firm Concert Pharmaceuticals has initiated a Phase Ib study for its protease inhibitor CTP-518. Early data on the candidate suggest that, unlike many marketed protease inhibitors, it does not require ritonavir boosting. Datamonitor believes that if these results are confirmed in larger studies, the compound has a strong chance of gaining commercial success.

Published By Datamonitor