‘Longevity paradox’ drives pharma - Dottikon

27 June 2007 15:19  [Source: ICIS news]

AMSTERDAM (ICIS news)--The rise of chronic degenerative diseases resulting from humans living longer is driving the global pharmaceutical market, a senior fine chemicals executive said on Wednesday.

 

“The longevity paradox is driving the pharma market as we’ve seen a decrease in infectious diseases and an increase in chronic degenerative diseases,” said Alexander Ebinger, director of sales at Dottikon Exclusive Synthesis, at the ChemSpec Europe event held in Amsterdam on 27-28 June.

 

“This has caused increased demand for certain drugs and cost explosions,” he added.

 

The average cost of bringing a drug to commercialisation has risen from around Swiss francs (Swfr) 590m (€357m/$480m) in 1995-2000 to Swfr1.2bn because of the increasing amount of time it takes to achieve regulatory approval, Ebinger said.

 

While the time to commercialisation took two-to-five years between 1995-2000, today it can take eight-to-10 years, he said.

 

“The challenge in drug development is to kill unpromising projects early, and for the ones with potential, get them to launch as fast as possible,” said Ebinger.

 

Switzerland-based Dottikon Exclusive Synthesis specialises in hazardous chemistry with the aim of improving product quality, accelerating innovation and reducing costs. The company produces advanced pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates.

 

Chronic degenerative diseases include arthritis, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

 

($1 = Swfr1.23/€1 = Swfr1.65)

 

By: Joseph Chang
+1 713 525 2653

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