2008-12-05 15:45:00 - Stakeholder Opinions - Restless Legs Syndrome - Novel drugs to prosper as lifecycle management strategies fail - a new market research report on http://www.companiesandmarkets.com

www.companiesandmarkets.com/Summary-Market-Report/Stakeholder-Op ..

Introduction

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurological condition, which affects 15.5 million medically significant sufferers across the seven major markets (7MM). Through Requip (ropinirole) and Mirapex´s (pramipexole) regulatory approvals in 200506, GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim pioneered the on-label RLS market, which reached $588m in 2007 across the 7MM.

Scope

*Patient potential including disease definition, etiology, patient segmentation, prevalence, presentation, diagnosis, and treatment

guideline review.

*Review of the key unmet needs in the treatment of restless legs syndrome as identified by key opinion leaders for the report.

*Analysis of the RLS market IMS sales data from 2004 to 2007 for major on- and off-label marketed restless legs syndrome drugs.

*Pipeline analysis with detailed profiles for key late-stage drugs: Neupro (rotigotine patch), Nenad (lisuride patch), Solzira (gabapentin enacarbil).

Highlights

Inappropriate pharmacokinetic properties may limit the development of oral extended-release versions of the current oral brands for restless legs syndrome, and prevent off-label prescribing of formulations designed with optimal pharmacokinetics for Parkinson´s disease.

Drugs acting with a different mechanism and inducing no augmentation could become beneficial alternatives to current dopamine agonists. Datamonitor expects Solzira to become a leading brand in the future market as specialists and primary care physicians may be more confident to prescribe it to a larger population and particularly to mild patients.

Drugs with new delivery methods could be helpful for RLS patients and prove commercially successful. While formulations with a long duration of action (e.g. UCB´s Neupro) may be beneficial for severe patients, treatments with rapid onset of action (e.g. UCB´s rotigotine nasal spray) could be used as rescue therapy in moderate-to-severe patients.

Reasons to Purchase

*Quantify the RLS market value in the US, 5EU and Japan and identify the drivers and resistors for RLS treatments.

*Understand key opinion leader (KOL) views on topical issues in the current and future treatment of RLS symptoms.

*Explore the R&D pipeline for RLS and the future directions of the market as identified by interviewed KOLs.