HIV Continues to Dominate the Worldwide $10 Billion Antiviral Drug Market

NEW YORK -- The AIDS epidemic will continue to be the largest factor in the nearly $10 billion world market for antiviral drugs, according to a new study released today by Kalorama Information. Over half of the revenues manufacturers in the antiviral segment will generate in 2003 will be from anti-HIV drugs, and that portion will only increase over the next few years.

Despite the dominance of HIV therapies, the new study revealed that there is opportunity across the board in the antiviral segment. Hepatitis, herpes, influenza, and newly emerging threats such as SARS are all proving challenging, and issues of cross-resistance will demand a constant flow of new product introductions.

"These non-HIV areas may have more potential for smaller firms than the crowded HIV market," notes Steven Heffner, Kalorama's acquisitions editor. "Our research showed that new products in HIV potentially face a number of serious challenges, including the ability of established competitors to modify and improve the formulation of their own products or even compete outright on price."

The new study on the world market for antiviral drugs is the third and final volume in the series entitled The World Market for Anti-Infectives, which also included volumes on antifungal and antibacterial drugs. The studies examine the epidemiology of the major infections, and analyze the markets by various segmentation approaches such as type of drug, geographic region, major indication, and manufacturer's market share. Pipeline developments, patent expiry and relevant business and clinical trends are also included.

Kalorama Information, an imprint of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent market research for the life sciences.

Source: MarketResearch.com