Drugs from Johnson & Johnson/Basilea and Forest Are the Most Promising Antibiotics in the Community-Acquired Pneumoni...( Vaccines from Wyeth and GlaxoSmith...)

Vaccines from Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline Will Also Be Vying to Capture Shares of the Escalating Pneumococcal Vaccine Market, According to a New

Report from Decision Resources

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the most promising antibiotics in development for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia are intravenous agents that will be used in the hospital setting, including Johnson & Johnson/Basilea's ceftobiprole and Forest's ceftaroline. The broad spectrum of these next- generation cephalosporins includes activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

The new Pharmacor report entitled Community-Acquired Pneumonia finds that in 2006 antibiotics generated more than $800 million while the pneumococcal vaccines garnered approximately $1.5 billion in sales in the major pharmaceutical markets. Decision Resources forecasts that the hospital segment of the community-acquired pneumonia market will experience considerable growth, driven by rising resistance rates that will encourage the uptake of novel products. However, growth in the outpatient market will be limited over the next decade given its maturity, increased availability of generic agents and the upcoming patent expiry of products such as Johnson & Johnson's Levaquin. The launch of vaccines in late-stage development from GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth expand upon the serotype coverage of Wyeth's blockbuster vaccine, Prevnar, and will drive growth in the pneumococcal vaccine market.

"Community-acquired pneumonia is an important indication for antibiotic drug developers because it represents a sizeable inpatient population and can be a gateway indication to the large outpatient respiratory tract infections market," said Kaitlyn Sullivan, analyst at Decision Resources. "Drug resistance will lead to a shift in prescribing
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