Touching 418 Million Lives, Hepatitis Still Presents Significant Threat to Global Health

NEW YORK -- Globally, approximately 418 million people are currently infected with hepatitis, and the unrecognized importance, danger, and costs of hepatitis in the 21st century cannot be understated or underestimated, according to Global Hepatitis Strategies, a new report by Kalorama Information.

Paradoxically, despite the obvious crisis, world governments are not taking the necessary steps to contain hepatitis. Yet the incidence and prevalence of hepatitis have begun to rise in certain parts of the global community, and even industrialized nations are lacking hepatitis control policies. Moreover, there is a greater crisis in hepatitis screening, diagnosis, and treatment emerging, particularly in those areas where HIV/AIDS is becoming more prevalent.

Kalorama Information estimates that the theoretical global market for all hepatitis testing products and therapeutics in 2006, assuming that aggressive screening were to be conducted, would be $3.3 trillion, with the western Pacific and southeast Asia showing the greatest need. However, the estimated realistic market potential for the various global regions for 2006, based on their currently reported hepatitis status and pricing structure, fell far short, reaching just $326 million.

"The strategic concept of hepatitis diagnosis and therapy is one of the most insufficiently recognized areas that the healthcare industry has ever seen," notes Kenneth. G. Krul, PhD, the report's author. "Governments, with the exception of a limited few, seem unable or unwilling to devise comprehensive hepatitis containment and prevention policies. In order to cope with the challenges and opportunities of hepatitis diagnostics and therapeutics, companies must think on a global basis, focusing on three points for the development of strategy: potential market, epidemiology and technology."

Global Hepatitis Strategies focuses on the factors that influence policy aspects of hepatitis, the options presented, the factors associated with strategic market development of hepatitis diagnostics and therapeutics, and prospects for the future. The report analyzes strategic market effects of epidemiology, market potential and technology, trends in epidemiology, and social/political attitudes towards hepatitis.

Source: Kalorama Information