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| Do the Pharmaceutical Giants See Pill Bottles as a Dollar Signs? Do you need to ask? |
Yes, the side effects suck and I am an itch-crazed mofo throughout the day, bitching and complaining to the one I love and who for some reason still love me, but that ultimately in the long run is all noise and static. The true heart of the matter is and always has been a cure that will save my proverbial ass.
I dream of nothing less than freedom from this virus. I hope my fellow afflicted will be able to walk the same path that I am walking with less of an itch. I pray that the men and women in the towers of power find it in their hearts and souls to help their fellow human beings and make sure that the 160 million sufferers worldwide of this virus can access the treatment they need.
Here is the Decisions Resources Press Release...
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The Hepatitis C Virus Drug Market Will Experience Dramatic Near-Term Growth, Increasing from $1.7 Billion in 2010 to $16 Billion in 2015
BURLINGTON, Mass., Nov 08, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the hepatitis C virus drug market will experience dramatic near-term growth, increasing from $1.7 billion in 2010 to $16 billion in 2015 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan. This robust growth will be driven primarily by the launch of novel premium-priced agents that will increase the size of the drug-treated population, mainly as a result of the re-treatment of prior non-responder patients. After 2015, the market will decrease to $11.3 billion in 2020, owing to a decline in the size of the treatment-eligible population as disease prevalence declines and effective new regimens become available.
Owing to the large commercial potential that is well-recognized by pharmaceutical developers, the pipeline for hepatitis C virus remains dynamic and competitive. The recent launches of telaprevir and boceprevir as well as agents in late-stage development such as Johnson & Johnson/Medivir's simeprevir and Boehringer Ingelheim's BI-201335 (both protease inhibitors and my clinical trial nightmare), Roche/Pharmasset's mericitabine and Pharmasset's PSI-7977 (both polymerase inhibitors) and Bristol-Myers Squibb's NS5A inhibitor daclatasvir will drive market growth through 2020.
The findings also reveal that interviewed physicians report that a lack of IFN-free regimens is a significant unmet need in treating the disease. Complete elimination of peg-IFNs and ribavirin agents is highly desirable owing to their side effects, which prevent a significant number of individuals infected with hepatitis C virus from receiving antiviral therapy.
"Physicians we interviewed expect that IFN-free regimens will be much better tolerated and will enable treatment of patients who are contraindicated to IFN-alpha," said Decision Resources Analyst Seamus Wilkinson-Levine, Ph.D. "We forecast that the first IFN-free regimens will be available in the United States and Europe by 2016 and in Japan by 2018."
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| Yup, I gotta take Credit for Adding this Pic - Not A Decision of Decision Resources |
About Decision Resources: Decision Resources is a world leader in market research publications, advisory services and consulting designed to help clients shape strategy, allocate resources and master their chosen markets. Decision Resources is a Decision Resources Group company. Decision Resources Group is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offers best-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of the healthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions.
I did the 2 drug treatment in 2010 and stopped after 12 weeks as a non responder. VL dropped from 8 mm to 400,000. This year I did the new treatment adding Incivek to the other two drugs. I found out that the side effects are much, much more intense than the 2 drugs treatment of interfueron and ribviran alone. (Interfueron and ribavran was a walk in the park once I stopped the Incivek). However the addition of the Incivek dropped the VL from 7 mm to 250 in the first two weeks. Though my VL dropped to undetectable at 12 weeks, once I stopped the Incivek, which is only for the first 12 weeks of the 24 or 48 week treatment, the virus came back. So at 17 weeks I stopped everything. My hepatologist told me they had had zero success with non-responders using Incivek at that point, though the trials reported a 32% success rate. He said they will probably stop treating non-responders with Incivek. He said they were shocked at the severity fo the side effects, anemia in particular, that they have needed to transfuse some patients to raise blood counts, while many others patients need weekly procrit and neupogen shots to help generate red and white blood counts.
ReplyDeleteThe cost of Incivek was like $7000 a week for 42 pills, $166 per pill. Much higher than both the interfueron and ribaviran combined..
We are hopeful that the new Bristol Myers Squibb drug in phase 2 trails will be approved in 3 years. It can be taken with or without interfueron and ribaviran and would then have a shorter treatment period. It has been very successful with non responders, as well as first timers (naive) and re-lapsers.