Pharmaceutical companies are adopting shrewd strategies to effectively compete in the tauopathies space, observes a report by GlobalData.
Titled ‘PharmaFocus: Tauopathies–Global Market Analysis’, the report details the strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies in the tauopathies market, which is yet to see the launch of a first drug.
Some of these strategies include licensing agreements and co-development partnerships. The discovery stage of potential tauopathy therapies is usually carried out by small biotechnology companies. The later stages of development are then carried out by large pharma companies.
Anavir / Otsuka’s AVP-796, Sellas Life Sciences Group / Catalent’s zolpidem, AbbVie / C2N Diagnostics’ ABBV-8E12, and Merck & Co. / Alectos Therapeutics’ MK-8719 are some examples of such partnerships.
Companies are also developing products simultaneously for multiple indications, in order to reduce research efforts and costs. AbbVie / C2N Diagnostics’ ABBV-8E12, TauRX Therapeutics’ TRx-237 and Cortice Biosciences’ TPI-287 are some examples of drugs being developed for multiple indications.
Pharmaceutical companies are specifically focusing on developing tauopathies and Alzheimer’s disease therapies in parallel, says Akiko Fukui, MSc, Healthcare Analyst for GlobalData.
Tauopathies and Alzheimer’s disease have common disease pathways. Research carried out on Alzheimer’s can, therefore, be applied to the development of tauopathies drugs and vice versa.
Pursuing multiple indications further helps pharma companies to build a strong portfolio of drugs, thereby reducing risk and increasing the chances of delivering clinical drug candidates. Neurimmune Holding, for example, is currently evaluating three pipeline products, BIIB076, NI205, and NI-308, which are in preclinical stages of development, explains Akiko Fukui.
