The VTE Therapeutics Market is Forecast to Show Significant Growth Until 2018

Wednesday 29 February 2012, Amsterdam

The report is an essential source of information and analysis on the global VTE market. The report identifies the key trends shaping and driving the global VTE market. The report also provides insights on the prevalent competitive landscape and the emerging players expected to significantly alter the market positioning of the current market leaders. Most importantly, the report provides valuable insights on the pipeline products within the global VTE sector. This report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research and in-house analysis by a team of industry experts.

The VTE Therapeutics Market is Forecast to Show Significant Growth Until 2018

An analysis suggests that the global VTE therapeutics market was worth $2.9 billion in 2010. It is forecast to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.1% for the next eight years, to reach $5.1 billion by 2018. The global VTE therapeutics market is being driven by the launch of new and efficacious treatment options and an increasing incidence rate. The growth will be further augmented by the increasing uptake of oral factor Xa inhibitor in treatment, and advancements in efficient and accurate diagnostic tools and techniques. For past many years, warfarin, vitamin K antagonists supplied as Coumadin by Bristol-Myers Squibb's and generics was the only oral anticoagulants available. But limitation with such oral anticoagulant (OAC) drug is they require dose modification based on patient monitoring. The OAC that are expected to launch in near future will offer significant advantages over currently available OAC drug. Most notably, Bayer Xarelto (rivaroxaban), Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer's apixaban (Eliquis) and Boehringer Ingelheim's Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate) will not require patient monitoring or dose adjustment.

See figure: VTE Therapeutics, Global, Revenue and Market Forecast ($m), 2005-2018

VTE Therapeutics Market has Strong Competition between Several Generics and a Few Branded Products

They analyzed the current competitive landscape for VTE drugs and found the competition to be strong. There are more than 10 marketed products for the treatment of VTE, which are classified broadly into anticoagulants and thrombolytics. Competition in the VTE therapeutics market is driven not only by product characteristics such as their efficacy and safety profiles, but also by market characteristics such as the number of competitors, product pricing and generics. The VTE market is largely dominated by generic products which have medium to high efficacy and safety profiles. Although the current market has few branded products, there is strong competition between generics and branded products. The efficacy of the currently marketed products is high in terms of reducing the total VTE events, reducing proximal Deep Vein Thrombus (DVT) events and decreasing the risk of Pulmonary Embolism (PE). However, the currently marketed products are associated with serious side effects such as the increased risk of hemorrhage and thrombocytopenia. This implies that new targeted therapies with improved efficacy and safety profiles are required. Further disadvantages associated with most of the current market products is the requirement of patient monitoring for dose adjustment. Most of the drugs in the late stage pipeline are in oral form and their dosage does not require monitoring, this will improve physician and patient compliance. The competition in the VTE therapeutics market will further intensify with the launch of the strong pipeline products.

VTE Therapeutics Market has Significant Unmet Need

They found that the global VTE therapeutics market holds potential, as the unmet need is significant. The VTE therapeutics market has a number of products with high efficacy profiles but their use put patients at risk of serious adverse events like hemorrhage and thrombocytopenia. Furthermore, most of these drugs are delivered in an injectable form and their dosage requires monitoring. There is an underlying opportunity to improve the therapeutic outcomes. Treatment options such as Low-Molecular- Weight Heparin (LMWH), vitamin K antagonists, factor Xa inhibitors, direct thrombin inhibitors and thrombolytics are able to fulfill the current unmet need to an extent but all have a history of low patient satisfaction. In summary, the unmet need in the VTE therapeutics market is significant and can be fulfilled by products that target underserved patient populations and offer improved safety and efficacy profiles. The current mainstay treatment for DVT is anticoagulant therapy.

The current standard treatment for VTE is weight adjusted LMWH once-daily for five to seven days as an initial treatment. Following the initial treatment, the long term treatment is oral therapy with vitamin K antagonists such as warfarin. These are effective for the prevention of recurring thrombosis. However, the currently available anticoagulants are associated with severe adverse effects such as an increased risk of bleeding; they also have low patient compliance records. Apart from this, treatment with the already available anticoagulants, such as warfarin, requires continuous laboratory testing in order to monitor blood factors to reduce the risk of bleeding. Therefore there is a need of improved anticoagulants; particularly agents that allow improved ease of administration, with convenient dosing and reduced requirements in terms of dose adjustment. So a molecule with an improved dosing schedule and safety profile will be able to capture the significant unmet need.

The Strong Clinical Pipeline has Several Me-too Molecules each with Improved Efficacy and Safety Profiles and Altered Dosage Patterns

They analyzed the VTE pipeline and found it to be strong. The VTE pipeline consists of 30 molecules currently in different stages of development. Of those, me-too molecules occupy 67% of the pipeline. In Phase III alone, there are approximately 15 me-too molecules these include some of the most promising pipeline candidates. These products are expected to provide better efficacy and safety profiles compared to the currently marketed products. Furthermore, growth will be sustained by the development of Oral Anticoagulants (OACs) which provide a rapid onset and offset of action, and streamlined extended VTE therapy. A strong clinical pipeline coupled with moderate unmet need in the VTE therapeutics market is expected to help sustain the market’s growth rate during the forecast period.