Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, owing to its superb efficacy, acceptable safety profile and anticipated launch in all major markets, Ironwood/Forest/Almirall/Astellas's linaclotide will emerge as the market leader for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In 2019, linaclotide will garner blockbuster sales of $1.1 billion in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Although Sucampo/Takeda/Abbott's Amitiza was the IBS drug market leader in 2009, the drug's limited efficacy, loss of patent protection and competition from linaclotide will cause Amitiza's sales to drop sharply through 2019.

The findings from the Pharmacor topic entitled Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which will publish later this month, reveal that the overall IBS drug market will expand at a 14 percent annual rate from 2009 to 2019, owing to the market entry of much-needed first-in-class therapies.

The findings also reveal that, because of the heterogeneity of IBS and the high rate of generic penetration, the IBS therapy market is highly fragmented and underserved. The lack of prescription therapies that can address more than one symptom of the disease means that physicians and patients resort to using multiple drugs, many of which are inadequate at controlling motility or pain symptoms associated with IBS. Additionally, owing to the combination of high prevalence and low diagnosis rates, substantial commercial potential exists for the development of drugs that target this indication.

"IBS is a highly prevalent chronic condition in the world's major pharmaceutical markets, but the lack of a biochemical or histological marker for positive diagnosis and incomplete understanding of the disease's pathophysiology and etiology have resulted in low diagnosis and treatment rates," said Decision Resources Analyst Iva Holder, Ph.D. "The limited number of efficacious treatment options suggests significant opportunity for new IBS therapies."

Source: Decision Resources

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