Biogenerics and New Technologies Compete with 1st Generation Major Products

Barcelona, Spain, June 20, 2006 --(PR.com)-- The Business Intelligence firm La Merie S.L. reported today that the US$ 32 bln market of major protein products with commencing patent expiry is endangered by generic products and by innovator solutions including engineered molecules and drug delivery solutions. Examples are the first biogeneric somatotropin now approved in the US and the European Union and Pfizer’s inhaled insulin. Both examples mark the entry of new players into the lucrative human growth hormone (hGH) and insulin markets. More hGH biogeneric products including slow release formulations are approaching the US$ 2.3 bln market and lead to erosion and conversion from an innovator to a biogeneric market. Although estimated price cuts of 25 to 30 % will be less than those for small molecule generics, cost pressure in the health care markets will support acceptance of biogeneric products. The US$ 11.2 bln erythropoietin market will face tough competition by consolidated biogeneric manufacturers. Numerous drug delivery solutions and protein engineering approaches are filling the pipelines with interferon, G-CSF, insulin and FSH products. These results and more were found in a search conducted by La Merie Business Intelligence. The competitor analysis can be acquired at www.pipelinereview.com, La Merie’s News Center and Online Store. More information will be provided in the Biogenerics miniseries published in the Free daily R&D Newsletter of PipelineReview.com beginning June 19.

The competitor analysis covers the field of eight product families: erythropoietin, human growth hormone, interferon, insulin, G-CSF, follicle stimulating hormone, thrombopoietin (TPO) agonists and thrombolytics. The pipeline evaluation includes the market description of the first generation products and a compilation of next generation projects, drug delivery solutions, protein engineering approaches, orally available small molecules and biogeneric projects in Western countries as well as in countries with insufficient patent protection.

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PipelineReview.com is the News Center and Online Store of La Merie Business Intelligence focused on R&D in the Biopharmaceutical Industry. Visitors of PipelineReview.com will find R&D relevant press releases and can receive selected R&D news from one or more of the site’s News Channels. For more information visit www.pipelinereview.com.

About La Merie

La Merie S.L. is a Business Intelligence enterprise fully dedicated to provide high quality R&D information to the biopharmaceutical industry. La Merie offers individual consultancy services and publishes reports and periodicals. For more information visit www.lamerie.com.

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