Report on the community-acquired pneumonia drug market

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the patent expiries of three blockbuster antibiotics -- levofloxacin, moxifloxacin and piperacillin/tazobactam -- will be the primary factors contributing to a decline of more than 15 percent in the community-acquired pneumonia drug market though 2018.

The new Pharmacor report entitled Community-Acquired Pneumonia finds that generic erosion of levofloxacin (Johnson & Johnson's Levaquin, Sanofi-Aventis's Tavanic and Daiichi Sankyo's Cravit), moxifloxacin (Bayer/Merck/Shionogi's Avelox), and piperacillin/tazobactam (Pfizer's Zosyn and Taisho Toyama's Tazocin) will fuel a 1.6 percent annual decline in sales of antibiotics to treat community-acquired pneumonia. As a result, the market will decrease from more than $850 million in 2008 to more than $720 million in 2018 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan. Although patent expiries in both the inpatient and outpatient settings will constrain the market, the launch of several new agents in the inpatient setting will help to partially offset losses in the overall market, according to the report.

"Two of the most clinically and commercially promising antibiotics in late-stage development are Johnson & Johnson/Basilea's ceftobiprole and Forest Laboratories/AstraZeneca/Takeda's ceftaroline, which are both broad-spectrum intravenous agents with anti-MRSA activity," said Decision Resources Analyst Jacqueline Lyons, MPH. "We forecast that these two agents combined will earn nearly $100 million in the community-acquired pneumonia market in 2018."

The report also finds that the community-acquired pneumonia market is characterized by untapped commercial opportunity for new drug development in the moderate to severe setting, for the treatment of resistant pathogens with agents that do not induce resistance, and for drugs with interchangeable intravenous and oral formulations to facilitate discharge of hospitalized patients.