Friday, September 14, 2012

Beyond Nicoderm: Transdermal Patches See Growth


It is anticipated that the transdermal/transmucosal drug delivery market will  continue to grow beyond the smoking cessation technology that first brought them to the marketplace, according to Kalorama Information's just-published report on this topic.   The market for drugs that use technologies to deliver therapeutics through the skin is expected to be driven by various factors including the loss of patent protection for blockbuster drugs and the need to avoid the first pass effects  of oral drug delivery. 

Additionally, with an added focus on active transdermal technologies, new applications will likely cause a resurgence of interest in transdermal delivery of products. Recent advances in biotechnology and molecular biology have resulted in a large number of novel molecules with the potential to revolutionize the treatment and prevention of disease. However, such potential is severely compromised by significant obstacles to delivery these drugs into the body. These obstacles mean that drug delivery and targeting is now recognized as the key to effective development of many therapeutics. Transdermal and transmucosal drug delivery systems continue to gain market acceptance as a preferred method of administration.

 Interest in transdermal/transmucosal drug delivery dropped until the early 1970s. In 1981 the first dermal patches, Transderm-Scop for scopolamine (ALZA) and the Transderm-Nitro (ALZA), were launched on the market. Nitro-Dur (Key) and Nitro-Disc (Searle) followed in 1982, and in 1985, Boehringer Ingelheim released Catapress-TTS for clonidine, using ALZA’s drug delivery technology. This spurred a number of transdermal product offerings including::   Estraderm (CIBA) for estradiol, Duragesic (Janssen) for fentanyl, Testoderm (ALZA) for testosterone, Minitran (3M) for nitroglycerin.

These products and more are covered in The World Market for Transdermal Drugs, from Kalorama Information.  

Thursday, September 13, 2012

ADME/Tox Services a Growing Market


Among the many services not commonly outsourced is early toxicology. While far from perfect, early ADME provides useful predictive information.  There are assays designed to show how cells and organ systems can deal with the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of the compounds of interest. New assays are being introduced that are even more efficient predictors of compound performance.   It is in the toxicology stage of ADME/Tox – where the pitfalls lie. 

Unlike ADME (which describes how a compound will perform in an organism), toxicity deals with how that compound will damage or kill that organism. The downside of unfavorable toxicity is a lot more serious.  Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies have found this out the hard way.  Several unfavorable events have emerged in the past few years which are largely attributed to the toxicity of a drug, including Vioxx and Baycol.

 At first glance, drug discovery can appear to be a straightforward process of screening compound candidates, optimizing leads, performing pre-clinical evaluations and then, with these steps completed, clinical trials can begin. The reality is not so neat. These activities often overlap, merge, and conflict with each other. So ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion) and Toxicology are not simply a step in lead optimization, they are actually an integral part of an ongoing process, and increasingly the industry is seeing it that way.  

Kalorama's recent report, Early Toxicology Markets and Approaches, focuses on markets for early toxicology testing services. The objective of this report is to focus the reader’s attention on the issues and opportunities related to early toxicology testing in drug discovery. It begins with an overview of drug discovery, ADMET, and early toxicology testing. It continues with some of the ways big pharmaceutical developers dealwith early toxicology.  Several areas are covered, including:
For the purposes of reporting market size and growth forecasts, the report segments the market into the following:
In Silico Approaches
Databases
Data Mining Tools
Modeling
In Vitro Assays and Platforms
Biochemical Assays
Cellular Assays
Instruments & Platforms
In Vivo Testing
Mice & Traditional Animals
Zebrafish Models
Other Animals
Human Microdosing
Early Tox Services
In Silico Services
In Vitro Services
In Vivo Services

For information or to order: 
http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Early-Toxicology-Approaches-7123316/

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Healthcare Finance News On Kalorama HAI Market Estimate

Healthcare Finance News has issued an article citing Kalorama's market estimate numbers  on hospital acquired infection testing.  Indeed, diagnostics is a big growth opportunity in this area as hospitals are under pressure to determine which patients have an HAI and isolate and or treat them.  

Five percent of admissions is a considerable incidence number, and we believe diagnostic companies will be busy working on innovative solutions which should keep growth strong in the next five years.  Top IVD companies are already involved in this area.  In our comments in the article, we addressed two of the most important HAIs that healthcare is facing.
“Some diseases are more of a priority. By and far, the most important of these are drug resistant tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) and drug resistant S. aureus, which can also cause a deadly form of nosocomial pneumonia,” said Carlson. “These are the most serious and easily spread nosocomial infections. Therefore, the greatest amount of research and development effort is flowing toward the diagnosis and MDR differentiation of infections by these two bacteria…. Speed is essential in identifying these infections, and there are a host of tests out there, targeting specific infections and offering fast results,”