Market for Huntington’s Disease Treatments could Generate $1 billion revenue per year, says Report

Jan. 21, 2008 - PRLog -- Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, has now added a new report showing that not all Huntington's Disease (HD) patients would receive treatment; however, a treatment rate of greater than 24% could be possible, resulting in a blockbuster market i.e. generating over a billion dollars revenue per year. The financial carrot of a blockbuster market would encourage more Research and Development (R&D) investment from pharmaceutical companies, thereby improving the quality of treatment available for HD patients.

“Pipeline Insight: Orphan Diseases in CNS - Part I: Huntington's Disease” (http://www.reportbyer.com/go/DAT08406) reports that the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) estimates that at least 150,000 patients, beyond its stated 30,000 US symptomatic HD patients, have a 50% risk of developing the disease. This translates to 75,000 individuals who will at some point develop the disease in the US or approximately 150,000 individuals across the six major HD pharmaceutical markets (6MM) of the US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK.

The report shows that given the relatively small number of patients with HD, a neurodegenerative genetic disorder, interest in this field from leading pharma players has been limited. However, with a genetic test available for this disorder, a shift in thinking towards niche conditions, and developments in the understanding of the disease, Huntington's diesease has the potential to become a lucrative market.

Current pharmacological therapy for HD is limited to the management or alleviation of neurobehavioral or movement abnormalities associated with the disease. No disease modifying, disease slowing or neuroprotective agent is currently approved or used to treat HD. However, authors of the report say pharmaceutical companies may have underestimated the commercial potential of developing HD drugs. With a strong genetic link and a freely available genetic test, prophylactic treatment with a disease modifying drug could be possible in HD in the future.

The study shows that HD is a highly genetically-linked disease caused by a mutated form of the protein, huntingtin, and each person whose parent has HD is born with a 50/50 chance of inheriting the mutated huntingtin gene. Anyone who inherits this gene will, at some stage, develop the disease. Genetic tests that can show whether someone has inherited the mutated gene are widely available. According to the NINDS there are 30,000 US patients suffering from HD. A similar prevalence of 1/10,000 is believed to occur in the major European countries.

“Pipeline Insight: Orphan Diseases in CNS - Part I: Huntington's Disease” is available from Report Buyer. For more information go to: http://www.reportbuyer.com/pharma_healthcare/diseases/ski...

Report Buyer product ID: DAT08406

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