Atrial fibrillation drug market to grow more than sevenfold, to $6.1 billion in 2018

As a result of the launches of several new agents, the atrial fibrillation drug market will increase more than sevenfold from $790 million in 2008 to $6.1 billion in 2018 in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan, according to a new report from research and advisory firm Decision Resources.

The new Pharmacor report entitled Atrial Fibrillation finds that a strong pipeline of oral fixed-dose anticoagulants, most notably Boehringer Ingelheim's Pradaxa (Dabigatran) and Bayer/Johnson & Johnson's Xarelto (rivaroxaban), will drive significant market expansion. The market will also be driven by sales of the antiarrhythmic agent dronedarone (Sanofi-Aventis's Multaq), which will take share from class IC and class III antiarrhythmics to capture 11% of the total atrial fibrillation patient share in 2018. The report forecasts that Multaq will garner sales of $660 million in 2018.

"Multaq is the first antiarrhythmic to demonstrate a reduction in the risk of hospitalization due to cardiovascular causes in patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation," said Decision Resources analyst Ben Kong, adding that "physician enthusiasm for Multaq reflects the growing importance of clinically relevant outcomes in clinical trials involving antiarrhythmic therapies."

The report also finds that Cardiome/Astellas' Kynapid (vernakalant HCl) will provide an attractive alternative to electrical cardioversion, particularly in the US intravenous cardioversion market, which is currently dominated by branded agents. In the USA alone, Kynapid will achieve sales of $130 million in 2018, the report forecasts.