Novel Anticoagulants Will Garner More Than Three-Quarters of the Atrial Fibrillation Drug Mark...( WALTHAM Mass. Dec. 4 /- Decision Reso...),Health

WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that novel anticoagulants that include emerging drugs from Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer/Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer, will garner more than three-quarters of the atrial fibrillation drug market by 2017.

The new Pharmacor report entitled Atrial Fibrillation finds that the most promising emerging oral anticoagulants are Boehringer Ingelheim's Pradaxa/Rendix, Bayer/Johnson & Johnson's Xarelto and Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer's apixaban, which will each garner peak-year blockbuster sales of more than $1 billion in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan. New anticoagulants, which will largely displace the use of the vitamin K antagonist drug class, will garner 76 percent of the atrial fibrillation market in 2017, owing to the strong potential each agent has in preventing stroke.

The report finds that the emergence and success of novel oral anticoagulants, combined with the launch and extensive uptake of Sanofi-Aventis's antiarrhythmic drug Multaq, will drive 15 percent annual market growth from 2007 to 2012. Market growth from 2012 to 2017 will then increase to a robust 27 percent annually, driving overall sales of atrial fibrillation therapies to $5.4 billion in 2017, compared to just over $800 million in 2007.

"Multaq, with its favorable efficacy and safety profile and its ability to reduce hospitalization and prevent stroke, will launch in 2009 and its arrival will enjoy wide acceptance by physicians," said Samira Benyoucef, Ph.D., analyst at Decision Resources. "Additionally, the introduction of more convenient and safe novel anticoagulants that offer advantages over existing agents will fuel significant expansion of the atrial fibrillation market over the next decade."