Opportunities in Acute Pain

Pharmacor -- September 2006

  Introduction:

The market for acute pain therapeutics is dominated by branded formulations of old molecules struggling for recognition in a sea of inexpensive generics. The failure to develop and commercialize truly novel agents has created an intensely competitive marketplace, where product differentiation is often subtle and frequently based on incremental improvement in delivery technologies.

  Questions Answered in This Report:

The global pharmaceutical market continues to slowly rebound from the loss of COX-2 inhibitors as the first-choice, “go to” option in acute pain. Which drugs have filled the void left by the fall of the COX-2 inhibitors? Can these agents hold this ground through 2015?

In addition to advancing multiple new oral delivery technologies, pipelines are stocked with a variety of novel intranasal, topical, and transdermal products. Which patients will be the primary users of these products at launch? Do any of these nonoral formulations hold significant commercial promise?

Competition among oral strong opioid formulations will continue to be particularly intense. Which strong opioids are generating the most excitement among thought leaders? Can any unseat the market leaders?

For years, biopharmaceutical companies attempted to develop and commercialize new analgesic formulations of vanilloid receptor-1 agonists, cannabinoid receptor modulators, and NMDA receptor antagonists. Will any successful products emerge from these efforts?

  Scope:

Markets covered: United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Japan.

Primary research: 65 country-specific interviews with thought leaders and primary care physicians/general practitioners.

Epidemiology: Prevalence of breakthrough cancer pain, incident events of select surgical procedures, prevalence of migraine, prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea, diagnosed prevalence of acute musculoskeletal pain.

Emerging therapies: Phase II: 40 drugs; Phase III: 15 drugs; preregistration: 3 drugs; registered: 3 drugs. Coverage of 8 select preclinical and Phase I products.

Market forecast features: Using a top-down model, we forecast drug sales (by class and formulation) in acute pain for hospital and retail channels through 2015.