2008-09-30 18:54:07 - Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, has added a new report which finds that though the HIV drug market will grow to $15.1 billion by 2017, there will be fierce competition among drugmakers for market share.

The report, 'Commercial Insight: HIV - The battle for market share is getting fiercer' which is available at www.reportbuyer.com/go/DAT13325 states that the HIV market, worth $9.3 billion in 2007, will be driven by the increasing prevalence of HIV worldwide and longer life expectancy of patients receiving treatment.

However, the study points out that despite this growth, the competition is getting tougher across all antiretroviral drug classes. It says, new efficacy and side-effect data on GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) fixed-dose combination Epzicom and results from two major trials on the use of Protease Inhibitors, will significantly change the dynamics within their respective classes.

The HIV market is dominated by just a few companies. Gilead is the current market

leader with a portfolio of four marketed products and an integrase inhibitor in late stage development. Authors of the report say that the first integrase inhibitor, Merck & Co's Isentress, launched in the autumn of 2007, is further intensifying the competition.

GSK, the market leader for much of the history of antiretroviral therapy, has eight marketed products, but many of its brands are relatively old and face patent expiration. In addition, several late-stage R&D setbacks over the past two years have left the company bereft of any HIV compounds in clinical development. The company had to face further problems this year
when several independent studies highlighted that GSK's main hope Epzicom, an FDC competing with Gilead's Truvada, is both less efficacious in certain patients and associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction.

In the space of just five months between September 2007 and January 2008, three new HIV drugs were approved by the regulators for the first time: Pfizer's Selzentry, Merck & Co's Isentress and Tibotec's Intelence. Isentress and Intelence are already being widely used in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens for treatment experienced patients,
but Selzentry's launch has been very sluggish.

The study finds that although the seven major markets are commercially the most significant for HIV, they in fact only account for three to six percent of the globally infected population.
HIV prevalence across the rest of the world is much higher, and access to antiretroviral therapy has been improving in low and middle-income countries. Thus, many pharmaceutical companies are turning towards fast-growing emerging markets as new sources of revenue growth.

Analysts say that within the seven major markets, Canada's HIV market was worth $272 million in 2007, and grew at a CAGR of 24% from 2004-2007 making it a market of significant opportunity.


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