Generics to constrain growth of Parkinson's disease drug market through 2020

Over the next decade, the Parkinson’s disease (PD) drug market in the leading countries (USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan) will be constrained by generic competition to key therapies, according to a new report from advisory firm Decision Resources.

Through 2020, the key PD therapies that will lose patent protection are Novartis/Orion Pharma’s Comtan/Comtess/Stalevo (a combination of levodopa, carbidopa and entacapone) and Teva Pharmaceuticals/Lundbeck’s Azilect/Agilect (rasagiline), while ropinirole (GlaxoSmithKline’s Requip, generics; GSK/SkyePharma’s Requip XL/LP/RP/Modutab/Prolib, generics) and pramipexole (Boehringer Ingelheim’s Mirapex/Mirapexin/Sifrol/BI-Sifrol, generics; Mirapex ER/Mirapexin ER/Sifrol Retard) will face increasing generic competition.

Overall sales to fall slightly, from $2.7 billion in 2010 to $2.6 billion