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Respiratory syncytial virus market

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 9, pages 15–16 (2010)Cite this article

Immunoprophylactic antibodies

Palivizumab (Synagis; MedImmune/Abbott) is a humanized murine monoclonal antibody against the RSV fusion protein that prevents the spread of virus to the lower respiratory tract2. It was approved by the FDA in 1998 and is licensed as a prophylactic agent for babies born prematurely at 35 weeks or less, and/or with congenital heart or lung disease. Palivizumab achieved blockbuster status (sales over US$1.2 billion in 2008), and MedImmune is likely to dominate this market for the next decade or more with second- and third-generation antibodies progressing through clinical trials. Motavizumab is an affinity-matured variant, which gives additional protection to the upper respiratory tract. In November 2008, MedImmune received a complete response letter to its biologics licence application (BLA) for motavizumab from the FDA and was expected to resubmit the BLA before the end of 2009. Further potency and lung bioavailability advances seem to have been achieved through directed molecular evolution, creating MEDI-557, which is now in Phase I testing3.

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Figure 1: The potential pool of patients who may seek respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) treatments.
Figure 2: Shifting market composition of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) agents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shane Storey is a senior biotechnology and health-care analyst with Wilson HTM Investment Group, Level 38, 71 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia. shane.storey@wilsonhtm.com.au,

    Shane Storey

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Storey, S. Respiratory syncytial virus market. Nat Rev Drug Discov 9, 15–16 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3075

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