March 2007


Recommended Resource:
Hepatology: An Important New Frontier
in Pharmaceutical Development
Product Management Today, February 2007

Hepatology – the study of liver diseases – represents a clinically important, dynamic and lucrative arena of pharmaceutical development. The opportunity in this therapeutic sector stems from the growing population of patients worldwide afflicted by common liver ailments such as viral hepatitis (including hepatitis C and hepatitis B) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Several unmet therapeutic needs within each of these liver injuries constitute major opportunities for drug development.

In a recent Product Management Today article, Noah M. Pines, GfK V2 Executive Vice President and Viral Diseases Expert, discusses key trends, unmet therapeutic needs and investigational drug candidates in development for these common liver ailments.

Key Trends and Unmet Needs for Common Liver Diseases


    Hepatitis C (HCV)

    Key Trends:     Availability of more treatment candidates as a function of
    more chronic hepatitis C patients presenting with advanced liver
    disease and the potential re-treatment of patients who have not responded
    to previous therapeutic options as a function of the availability of novel medications

    Unmet Needs: Improved efficacy and tolerability

    Hepatitis B (HBV)

    Key Trends:     A shift to medications associated with less development of
    resistance over time, including potentially increased usage of combination
    anti-viral therapy; and the possible expansion of potential treatment
    candidates to encompass those with elevated HBV virus and normal liver
    enzyme levels (i.e., “immune tolerant” patients)

    Unmet Needs: Treatment efficacy, resistance and duration of therapy

    Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)

    Key Trends: Likely to become the most common liver disease in the future,
    yet there are no approved or commonly accepted medications available for treatment

    Unmet Needs: The availability of noninvasive modes of assessing patients’
    liver status on an ongoing basis and the gastroenterology community’s understanding of the natural course of NAFLD

To download the full article titled, Hepatology: An Important New Frontier in Pharmaceutical Development, click here.


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