The market of recombinant coagulation factors is growing with next generation products

The growing market of recombinant coagulation factors posted 2006 sales of more than US$ 4.6 bln. The four market leaders compete with a staggered series of next generation products and face competition by new entrants into the various segments of the field

BARCELONA, Spain | Feb 14, 2007 | The Business Intelligence firm La Merie S.L. reported today that the global market of recombinant coagulation factors VIIa, VIII and IX posted strong 2006 sales of more than US$ 4.6 bln. The still growing market of recombinant coagulation factors has marginated human plasma-derived products. Competition between Baxter, Bayer and Wyeth in the recombinant F. VIII segment (sales of US$ 2.8 bln) has spurred the launch of safer, animal and human protein free, products formulated with sucrose or trehalose. More convenient presentation formats of existing products are a current differentiation strategy. Development of next generation Factor VIII products is based on prolonging the half-life of the existing proteins by drug delivery technologies. This competitive field is pioneered by Bayer Schering Pharma ahead of Baxter and Wyeth with a clinical phase I project and joined by Novo Nordisk as a new entrant into the F. VIII segment. Research stage projects are based on protein engineering and peptide technologies. These approaches aim at generating long-acting and more potent molecules with Factor VIII activity to allow non-iv, less frequent or even oral administration. These results and more were found in a Competitor Analysis conducted by La Merie Business Intelligence. The report can be found at www.pipelinereview.com , La Merie’s News Center and Online Store

Novo Nordisk occupies the recombinant F. VIIa market and has advanced activities in extending the label by new indications, such as bleeding, surgery and brain injury. Novo Nordisk’s next generation V. VIIa projets face competition by Roche & collaborator attracted by the monopolistic US$ 1 bln market expected to further grow by new indications. Novo Nordisk’s recent decision to focus on protein therapeutics also finds its materialization in R&D projects with F. VIII, F. IX and F. XIII. The acquisition of Syntonix, Biogen Idec is entering the field of recombinant next generation coagulation factors by use of Syntonix’ Transfuson and Transceptor technologies. Market leader Baxter is opening a new market with its R&D activities of recombinant von Willebrand factor. Purified human and recombinant human versions of thrombin are in the registration process and expected to squeeze out bovine thrombin products.

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SOURCE: La Merie Business Intelligence