Rising market value for type 2 diabetes mellitus treatment

The global market for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) therapeutics will rise in value from $23.5 billion in 2014 to around $39 billion by 2021, business intelligence provider GBI Research has estimated. The company’s latest report says this increase will occur across eight major markets (the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan), driven by rising disease prevalence and the continued uptake of recently approved and emerging treatments.

T2DM is a metabolic disease characterised by chronic hyperglycaemia (high blood glucose levels). Global prevalence has risen rapidly in the past several decades, particularly in line with obesity. This has been attributed to a range of factors — including economic development, increasing urbanisation, ageing populations and changes in lifestyle patterns — and led to strong commercial interest in the development of T2DM therapeutics.

The report explains that the current therapeutics market is large and diverse, comprising several drug classes. However, current treatment regimens are often associated with limited long-term efficacy, complex and inconvenient dosing regimens, and undesirable side effects such as weight gain and hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose levels).

But GBI Research Associate Analyst Fiona Chisholm said more recently approved drug classes feature benefits such as improved weight control, lowered hypoglycaemia risk and improvements in dosing frequency and administration methods. As such, they are expected to increase their market share over the forecast period.

“Notable examples include two recently approved once-weekly GLP-1 receptor agonists, Tanzeum and Trulicity, and an orally administered GLP-1 receptor agonist, OG-217SC, which is in Phase II development, as well as ITCA 650, a subdermally administered osmotic pump in Phase III development that requires once- or twice-yearly dosing,” she said.

The report notes that the T2DM pipeline is large, with 520 products at an active and disclosed stage of development. In particular, the late-stage pipeline includes 16 products at the preregistration Phase and 33 products in Phase III.

“Many products in the late-stage pipeline belong to drug classes that are already established in T2DM treatment and only provide more convenient dosing schedules or administration routes,” Chisholm said.

“However, higher levels of innovation are apparent in the early-stage pipeline, which may lead to considerable improvements in safety and efficacy over the longer term.”

The report can be found at the GBI Research website.

Source