New optimism in the search for effective pharmacological treatment for traumatic brain injury despite a lack of attention from Big Pharma

There is growing optimism amongst key opinion leaders about the potential clinical benefits of progesterone in the treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a new study from Datamonitor. The TBI pipeline contains two progesterone receptor agonists in Phase II trials - BHR Pharma's BHR-100 and M et P Pharma's ProgestoMat (MPP-22), it notes.

Charlotte Mackey, senior health care analyst at Datamonitor, comments: 'We estimate 1.1 million new hospitalized TBI cases will occur in 2010 across the seven major markets. This represents a substantial patient population, higher than the annual incidence of diseases such as epilepsy, HIV/Aids and spinal cord injury. With the potential for orphan drug status, the lack of competition and the high cost of lifetime care for patients, this is a potentially lucrative market. However, competition from generic progesterone is a threat to developers of progesterone-based treatments.'

The pipeline is dominated by neuroprotective treatments that aim to prevent the cascade of physiological events (known as secondary injury) that occurs over a period of hours or days following the initial traumatic insult to the brain.