DefinedHealth

Aileen Nicoletti, PhD.

With the exception of psoriasis, which has seen the recent approval of the first anti-TNFs and where a modest 7% annual growth is predicted, the medical dermatology market is relatively stagnant at 3% CAGR, primarily because of the high level of genericization and a dearth of novel product introductions. Over the last two years, licensing and acquisition deals in the medical dermatology space have been focused, with few exceptions, on transferring rights for marketed topical agents from one dermatology player to another. Big Pharma’s involvement in late-stage deals has been limited to GSK’s divestiture of its prescription dermatology business to Altana (which has subsequently been acquired by Nycomed - perhaps portending another relocation of these assets).

As sales of drugs for medical dermatology indications have slowed, Pharma has turned its sights to aesthetic dermatology, where sales growth was a robust 25% per year from 2000-2004. However, no big Pharma company has yet to make a deal in this space, perhaps because even this market is becoming less attractive with the total number of cosmetic procedures performed in the US declining 4% between 2004 and 2005 and entrenched specialty and device players poised to enter the market with thinly differentiated products.

The lack of drug development and deal activity in the dermatology space is striking, given that the standard of care in many indications islimited to repurposed topical medications and other compounds that are associated with significant inconvenience and/or side effects (e.g., the injectable administration of biologicals for psoriasis, or the teratogenicity of Retin-A for acne). Given the size of the dermatology market, unmet needs and the obvious opportunities for novel agents to improve upon standard of care, it is unclear why more efforts are not being focused on development of novel agents for these indications.

In this installment of our 7th annual Insight Series, Defined Health will examine the opportunities and barriers for development of medical dermatology products. Join us as we focus on the state of the science and agents in development that may have the potential to rejuvenate Bio-Pharma’s interest in the dermatology space.