Keywords: MRSA, Theravance, Astellas, J&J, Basilea, AstraZeneca, Takeda, Market

Emerging compounds will drive modest growth in the MRSA drug market through 2018, says Decision Resources

Article | 24 November 2009

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Over the next decade, modest growth in the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) drug market will be driven in part by the uptake of three emerging agents from Theravance/Astellas, Johnson & Johnson/Basilea and Forest/AstraZeneca/Takeda, says a new report from research and advisory firm Decision Resources.

The increasing prevalence of MRSA and the uptake of several premium-priced emerging therapies will drive the MRSA market to increase from $740 million in 2008 to more than $1 billion in 2018 in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan.

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The new Pharmacor report, entitled Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, finds that Theravance/Astellas' telavancin, Johnson & Johnson/Basilea's ceftobiprole and Forest/AstraZeneca/Takeda's ceftaroline will capture more than one-third of the overall MRSA market in 2018. The two novel first-in-class anti-MRSA cephalosporins - ceftobiprole and ceftaroline - which are both expected to launch by 2011, will have a significant impact on the market by bringing cephalosporins to the forefront of the array of drug classes used to treat MRSA. Owing to their broad-spectrum and expanded activity against MRSA, ceftobiprole and ceftaroline are well-poised for use as first-line therapies for suspected MRSA infections in the hospital setting, says the report.

"Ceftobiprole and ceftaroline offer safe, effective, and convenient monotherapy options for simplified empiric treatment of MRSA infections in place of existing combination therapy," said Decision Resources analyst Hemali Patel, adding: "Although we anticipate robust competition between these two agents due to their similar profiles, we forecast that ceftobiprole and ceftaroline will each achieve significant commercial success and together will represent 20 percent of the overall MRSA market in 2018."

The report also finds that, in contrast to current therapies consisting largely of narrow-spectrum anti-MRSA agents, late-stage anti-MRSA emerging therapies are comprised of numerous broad-spectrum agents spanning several antibiotic drug classes. In addition, the pipeline for MRSA is also characterized by new therapies being developed in both intravenous and oral formulations (eg, Trius Therapeutics' torezolid, Rib-X's delafloxacin, Paratek/Novartis' PTK-0796) which could address the growing need for oral MRSA therapies for both the hospital and community settings.