SIZING UP THE MARKET FOR GERIATRIC MEDICINE

By 1995, the world market for geriatric medicines will rise to a value of $57 billion, compared with $35 billion (for all eight major therapeutic categories which make up 75% of the total drug market) in 1991, a new study from management consultants Datamonitor says.

In different categories, the size of the market for the over 65s will increase at differing rates, dependent upon the medical need for the over 65s in that segment and the launch of new drugs which can fulfil unmet medical needs. An example is the central nervous system market. Here, there is a very large unmet medical need for drugs to treat the dementias and cognitive disorders of old age.

Although Warner-Lambert's Cognex (tacrine) has been approved in the USA and France (and other approvals are pending), there are still no treatments for Alzheimer's of real proven efficacy, the study notes, and none are likely to reach the market until 2000, when the segment of the CNS market for the over 65s is likely to expand very rapidly.