Patent expiries of Proscar, Flomax, and Omix will cause a significant decline in sales of benign prostatic hyperplasia drugs

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the patent expiries of Merck's Proscar, Boehringer Ingelheim's Flomax, and Astellas's Omix, combined with the limited emergence of new therapies, will cause a 23% decline in sales of therapies to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia over the next five years.

The new Pharmacor report entitled Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia finds that the market to treat the disease is dominated by two drug classes -- alpha blockers and 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors -- which make up 93% of drug sales in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Boehringer Ingelheim's Flomax and Astellas's Omix (both alpha blockers) dominated the market in 2006, comprising half of all benign prostatic hyperplasia drug sales. However, the patent expiries of Proscar, Flomax, Omix, and GlaxoSmithKline's Avodart in the United States in 2009 will cause a significant decline in the overall benign prostatic hyperplasia market by 2011.

Although patent expiries will constrain the market in the near term, increases in the patient population, unmet need, and higher drug treatment rates from 2011 to 2016 will help create a favorable landscape for novel benign prostatic hyperplasia treatments.

"Eli Lilly's Cialis and GlaxoSmithKline's fixed-dose combination of tamsulosin and dutasteride, both of which are expected to launch for benign prostatic hyperplasia in the United States and in Europe by 2011, are the two most promising agents in the pipeline," said Greg Dwyer, analyst at Decision Resources. "The combined sales of these two drugs will represent nearly 30% of the total benign prostatic hyperplasia market in 2016."

To listen to an interview with Mr. Dwyer regarding the benign prostatic hyperplasia drug market, please visit the Find Out More section of the Decision Resources home page on September 17, 2007, at http://www.decisionresources.com/.

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