Thursday, April 17, 2008

Genomics Likely to Replace Traditional Drug Therapies in Treating CHF

The market for congestive heart failure (CHF) drug treatments was estimated at $18 billion in 2007, and is expected to reach $30 billion by 2017, according to a new report by Kalorama Information, Congestive Heart Failure: Major World Markets, Volume I: Pharmaceutical Management. Growth is being driven by three factors: an increased incidence of CHF, the application of innovative technologies in search of targeted therapies which is creating opportunity for new entrants into this market, and physicians prescribing multi-drug regimens in response to the failure of traditional drugs to treat CHF.

CHF is a complex disorder for which prevention is more effective than treatment, and as part of the larger cardiovascular markets, it is mostly treated with drugs used to treat many other cardiovascular disorders. The lack of targeted treatments means drugs will continue to be applied liberally for prevention and sales will grow disproportionately to the CHF patient population.

"The future of CHF drug treatments lies in newer technologies such as biotechnology and genomics," notes Kenneth Krul, the report's analyst. "The identification of fetal genes associated with CHF, new treatments that address the endothelium and cell therapy to regenerate damaged heart muscle tissue present some promising areas."

The market for drugs to treat CHF will continue to be dominated by major pharmaceutical companies which supply product lines with broad cardiovascular applications. There are, however, many smaller companies focusing primarily on CHF and biotech, and their numbers are growing with the realization that this disease presents a major economic opportunity for which there is currently no adequate answer.

(Source: www.pharmalive.com)

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