Superior combo therapies to sustain HIV/AIDS market growth despite major patent expiries

The HIV/AIDS therapeutics market is a growing therapy sector, with the USA dominating in terms of revenues. The growth rate is likely to decline from 2012 due to the impact of the patent expiries of key drugs. The market is driven by an increase in treatment seeking rates as well as the introduction of new drugs such as Atripla as part of HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy), according to a new report form GBI Research, which covers the leading markets of the USA, the top five European countries (the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) and Japan.

The HIV/AIDS therapeutics market is expected to grow at a slower rate in the forecast period to 2017. This is primarily due to the patent expiries of major drugs such as Sustiva (efavirenz) and Combivir (lamivudine and zidovudine) in 2012. Other drugs such as Epivir (lamivudine), Epzicom (abacavir lamivudine), Trizivir (abacavir zidovudine lamivudine), Ziagen (abacavir), Invirase (saquinavir) and Lexiva (fosamprenavir) went off patent in 2009 and 2010.

However, says GBI, the impact of these patent expiries will be partially offset by the increased use of new drugs which are more effective in tackling disease progression. The sales of new drugs such as Atripla have increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 136% over the last three years. On the other hand, drugs such as Trizivir (abacavir zidovudine lamivudine), Relenza (zanamivir) and Epivir have declined at a CAGR of 11%, 21% and 17% respectively.