Competition hots up in US glaucoma market

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved two new drugs for thetreatment of elevated intraocular pressure in patients with glaucoma, namely Allergan's Lumigan (bimatoprost) and Alcon's Travatan (travoprost). Both companies said they planned to launch their new products within the next few weeks.

Allergan faces an immediate hurdle, however, in the form of a potential legal challenge from Pharmacia, which manufactures rival prostaglandin-based drug Xalatan (latanoprost), the market leader with sales of around $800 million a year. Allergan filed a pre-emptive lawsuit earlier this month seeking a ruling that Lumigan does not contravene two patents covering Xalatan, as claimed by Pharmacia (Marketletter March 12), and a counter-suit alleging infringement may be on the cards. Pharmacia has also taken issue with Alcon over its plans to introduce Travatan, according to Reuters.

Alcon appears to be taking a "niche" market emphasis with Travatan, claiming that its drug is the first glaucoma treatment to show greater effectiveness in African-American patients, a group that faces higher risks from glaucoma, although it has been approved for more general use. Meanwhile, Allergan has presented new data at the annual International Glaucoma Symposium in Prague, Czech Republic, suggesting that Lumigan is more effective at lowering intraocular pressure at three months than Xalatan.