Six hospital-acquired pneumonia drugs in late-stage development could generate $3.8bn by 2020

Six drugs currently in Phase III studies to treat hospital-acquired pneumonia would generate total revenue of $3.8 billion by 2020, according to a new report from Transparency Market Research.

Hospital-acquired infections have raised serious concerns due to multidrug resistance, which makes them difficult to treat. Pneumonia constitutes more than 22% of all hospital-acquired infections, and is common in immunocompromized patients, post-surgical infections, enteral feeding, and in elderly and infant patients.

There are currently five investigational drugs and one vaccine in Phase III trials, while 10 other candidates are in early-stage trials. Cubist Pharmaceuticals’ Ceftolozane/tazobactam, AstraZeneca’s Ceftazidime/avibactam, Bayer’s Amikacin inhale and GSK’s Synflorix are just some of the Phase III candidates. The majority of the candidates in late-stage are biological drugs, which indicates a shift from traditional antibiotic therapies. Aridis Pharmaceuticals hold a strong monoclonal antibody pipeline with four candidates for treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia, bought from Kenta Biotech in 2013.