Emerging Combination Therapies, Including Drugs from Novartis/Schering-Plough and GlaxoSmithKline/Theravance Will Drive the COPD Drug Market to More Than $11 Billi...( Prevalent COPD Population Will Rise...),Health

Prevalent COPD Population Will Rise by Nearly 19 Percent as a Result of

Increased Diagnosis Rates, According to a New Report from Decision

Resources

WALTHAM, Mass., May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the launches of emerging therapies, especially the long-acting beta2 agonist/inhaled corticosteroid combination drug class, will drive sales in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) drug market to more than $11 billion in 2017.

The new Pharmacor report entitled Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease finds that, among the emerging combination therapies, Novartis/Schering-Plough's indacaterol/mometasone and GlaxoSmithKline/Theravance's GW-642444/GW-685698 will experience annual growth of 60 percent and 71 percent, respectively, between 2012 and 2017 as a result of greater uptake of these once-daily, fixed-dose combination drugs. The market will also be driven by increased diagnosis rates in the next 10 years as the prevalent COPD population will rise by nearly 19 percent as a result of aging populations in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Japan.

Although the COPD drug market in 2007 totaled just $6.6 billion, the market has yet to realize its maximum commercial potential, according to the report. Tapping into this great market opportunity will require significant improvements in diagnosis as well as the availability of more effective drug treatments, particularly therapies that address COPD-specific pathology.

"Although disease-modifying therapies are needed, treatments that provide symptomatic relief for COPD will remain the mainstay of treatment through 2017," said Regina Jammen, analyst at Decision Resources. "The market will shift from monotherapy use, as well as from the use of twice-daily dosed therapies, to combination treatments an
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