Special Report: Respiratory Syncytial Virus: High Incidence + Few Interventions = Large Market Opportunity

Sales of the only effective agent for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) hit the billion-dollar mark in 2005, seven years after launch, and continue to grow steadily. Elderly patients-whose event rates will increase by up to 33% in the next ten years-and infants need an effective antiviral or vaccine. With few competitors and great unmet need, this market is primed for competitive entry. As one physician we interviewed says, "RSV will be like infl uenza once you have a treatment. We see far more RSV in children than we do infl uenza in children." Further, adults and the elderly are rarely diagnosed with RSV-although they certainly experience the disease. This group of patients should be of particular interest to drug developers.

Questions Answered in This Report

• Approximately 95% of children are infected with RSV by the time they are two years old. How many cases do Decision Resources epidemiologists forecast in the major pharmaceutical markets over 2008-2018? What types of RSV-related diseases will high-risk children contract, and how will they be treated? How are they diagnosed and by whom?
• Approximately 170,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths occur among the elderly (older than age 64) every year from RSV-related disease. How are diagnosis and treatment of immunocompromised adults and the elderly different from those of pediatric patients? What are some of the challenges in diagnosing and treating these populations? How many cases of RSV in all age-groups are underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed?
• Only one prophylactic and one treatment are available on the market for serious cases of RSV in pediatric patients, and none are available for adults. MedImmune's motavizumab is slated to launch in 2010 for highrisk infants. But why have more drugs not been developed? What are the most promising therapy areas being investigated? What companies have been most active in drug development?