Metabolic Syndrome: A New CHA Report Evaluates the Therapeutic and Commercial Promise of Emerging Drugs

Main Category: Endocrinology
Article Date: 07 Feb 2005 - 15:00 PDT

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The Metabolic Syndrome has become a very attractive target of drug development by large as well as small, highly specialized companies. The Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of risk factors for atherosclerotic disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus comprising obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Its rapid increased prevalence in Western-type societies has elevated the Metabolic Syndrome to a high priority public health issue. In fact, National U.S. survey data suggest the Metabolic Syndrome affects about one-quarter of adults aged 20 to 70 years, with the prevalence approaching 50% in the elderly.

Metabolic Syndrome: Pipeline Analysis and U.S. Market Forecast is a new CHA Advances Report that thoroughly evaluates marketed therapies and drugs in development for dyslipidemia, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension.

Based on an analysis of unmet medical need, epidemiology, patent expirations, and competitive drug launches, the report projects strong growth in the dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, and obesity markets, but moderate growth of the hypertension market due to an abundance of low-cost, efficacious therapies.

While the currently available drugs for obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension offer treatment options for the Metabolic Syndrome, especially if used in combination, none of these marketed drugs is ideal individually, and no combination offers a pharmacological treatment for the Metabolic Syndrome that is both safe and highly effective. The report identifies this unmet therapeutic need as primarily one that concerns drug efficacy, onset of action, side effects with and without drug interactions, and convenience of administration, and examines the product portfolios and research pipelines of prominent companies working to address these issues.

"A perfect storm of factors -- aging demographics, high-risk lifestyles, under stocked drug pipelines, a health care system in disarray -- is poised to make metabolic syndrome an unprecedented global burden. The company that can bring to market a single treatment that targets its underlying component disorders will be richly rewarded," states Michael Goodman, Director of CHA Advances Reports.

For more information about Metabolic Syndrome: Pipeline Analysis and U.S. Market Forecast, visit http://www.chadvisors.com/services/Metabolic_Syndrome/overview.cfm, or contact Cindy Ohlman at cohlman@chadvisors.com or 781-547-0202.

Cambridge Healthtech Advisors (CHA) Advances Life Sciences Reports are written by expert authors who collaborate with CHA to provide a series of reports that evaluate the salient trends in pharmaceutical technology, business, and therapy markets.

Cambridge Healthtech Advisors (CHA)
http://www.chadvisors.com

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