Thomson Reuters Names Drugs to Watch in 2014

Thomson Reuters released its annual forecast of the leading drugs to watch in 2014, including three potential treatments anticipated to bring in more than $1 billion in sales through 2019. The analysis identified three drugs that are predicted to significantly impact the marketplace in the upcoming year.

The first drug, Sovaldi by Gilead, is an oral NS5B ploymersase inhibitor for treating hepatitis C, which is expected to reach $2.4 billion in sales in 2014, and an estimated $9.1 billion by 2019. The second is Anoro Ellipta by GSK, which contains two bronchodilators for the long-term, once-daily maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with COPD, with predicted sales of $3 billion through 2019. The third is Idelalisib by Gilead, an oral P13K p110-delta subunit inhibitor for indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the US and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in the UK. This treatment demonstrated effectiveness in a phase III CLL trial, however, idelalisib faces competition in the CLL marketplace.

The forecast cited other notable drugs including Eli Lilly’s long-acting GLP-1 analog dulaglutide for diabetes and its anti-VEGFR2 mAb Cyramza for gastric cancer, as well as MannKind’s inhaled insulin product Afrezza. This will be the third filing for Afrezza since 2009, after FDA twice requested further information.

The Thomson Reuters Market Insight report also includes an update on the 2013 Drugs to Watch, including Vascepa (Amarin), Pomalyst (Celgene), Kadcyla (Roche), and Relovair (GlaxoSmithKline, Thervance).

Source: Thomson Reuters