News Feature | April 16, 2014

Thomson Reuters Forecasts Leading Drugs To Watch For In 2014

By Estel Grace Masangkay

The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters has released its annual forecast of leading drugs to watch for in 2014.

Jon Brett-Harris, managing director of Thomson Reuters Life Sciences, said, “It is interesting to watch the transformation from yesterday's blockbuster drug era to that of the current environment, where precision medicine and drug repositioning are on center stage. That said, we see three strong potentials of blockbuster caliber this year. As the pharmaceutical industry searches for replacement revenue streams, our Drugs to Watch report is a valuable tool for identifying therapies that have blockbuster potential, as well as other drugs with strong revenue indicators.”

Reuters’ analysis named the three potential blockbuster drugs to watch for in 2014 as:

  • Sovaldi - Gilead's oral NS5B ploymersase inhibitor for treating hepatitis C virus (HCV) was approved by the FDA in December 2013 and is expected to reach $2.4 billion in sales in 2014. It is also expected that by 2017, it will reach its peak in sales, garnering an estimated $9.1 billion.
  • Anoro Ellipta - GlaxoSmithKline/Theravance's Anoro Ellipta, which contains two bronchodilators for the long-term, once-daily maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), is predicted to outsell its developers' 2013 potential blockbuster Relovair in the COPD field. Anoro Ellipta is expected to see sales of $3 billion through 2019.
  • Idelalisib - Gilead filed this oral P13K p110-delta subunit inhibitor for U.S. approval for indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in September 2013 and for European approval for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and INHL in October 2013. A U.S. filing for CLL is also planned. This treatment demonstrated significant efficacy in a phase III CLL trial; however, idelalisib faces fierce competition in the CLL marketplace.

Charlotte Jago, senior editor for the Thomson Reuters Life Science business and author of the Market Insight report, said, “These treatments are expected to be the highest performing from our list of drugs to watch in 2014. That is not to say, however, that these are the only drugs of high potential this year. To the contrary, there are several other therapies we've identified and which are also worth keeping an eye on.”

The list also highlighted Eli Lilly's long-acting GLP-1 analog dulaglutide for diabetes and its anti-VEGFR2 mAb Cyramza for gastric cancer, as well as MannKind's inhaled insulin product Afrezza. The Market Report also included an update on the 2013 Drugs to Watch, which includes Pomalyst (Celgene), Relovair (GlaxoSmithKline, Theravance), and Kadcyla (Roche).

The full Market Insight report can be obtained at Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property and Science.