DefinedHealth

Michael Rice, MS, MBA

Decades of advances in nutrition, medicine, diagnostics and preventative healthcare are manifesting in increasing longevity and a growing elderly well population. As demographics shift, progressive degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis and other musculoskeletal disorders
are becoming increasingly prevalent.

Osteoporosis is the poster child for fragility in the aging. The osteoporosis market currently is nearly $10 billion worldwide, but faces imminent threat from generic substitution of the largest drug classes used in this setting, bisphosphonates and hormonal agents. It is as yet unclear whether newer formulations of current drug classes or novel MOAs will be shown to provide sufficient clinical benefit to justify their use versus inexpensive bisphosphonates. To add further uncertainty to the future of this space, treatment focus to date has been on post-menopausal women, while there exists a large underserved elderly male osteopenic segment.

In our minds, an untapped market potential resides in new markets in the related but relatively under recognized conditions that can be grouped under the generic heading of diseases of fragility or frailty in the aging, such as sarcopenia and cachexia. The epidemiology and unmet needs in these settings are significant, but the underlying pathophysiological processes are complex, the science supporting developmental agents is immature and clinical endpoints for which to evaluate such drugs are as yet undefined.

In this installment of our 9th annual Insight Series, Defined Health will characterize the fragility market and discuss pioneering development projects as well as opportunities and obstacles in the creation of value from today’s development pipelines.