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Antiviral market overview

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 1, pages 11–12 (2002)Cite this article

The past decade has seen significant progress in developing new antivirals. In 1990, there were just five drugs licensed as antiviral agents, whereas now there are more than thirty, most being for the treatment of HIV (see below). However, combination therapy for those patients with advanced AIDS has only increased life expectancy from 1.53 years to 2.91 years. Clearly, new therapies with novel mechanisms of action or unique resistance profiles are sorely needed. The clinical need is arguably as great in the case of other viral pathogens, for which current treatment options are more limited. Interestingly, those companies that have chosen to tackle viral diseases such as HCV (for which Schering-Plough and Hoffmann-La Roche dominate the market), cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus (HSV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV; MedImmune's Synagis dominates) have been rewarded with strong sales and far less competition than their counterparts in the HIV market.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Consultants at Wood Mackenzie, Kintore House, 74–77 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4NS, UK

    David Milroy & James Featherstone

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  1. David Milroy
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  2. James Featherstone
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Correspondence to James Featherstone.

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DATABASES

Medscape DrugInfo

Crixivan

Hivid

interferon-α

Kaletra

Retrovir

Synagis

Videx

Viracept

FURTHER INFORMATION

FDA

Wood MacKenzie

World Health Organization

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Milroy, D., Featherstone, J. Antiviral market overview. Nat Rev Drug Discov 1, 11–12 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd709

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