Hepatitis B Treatment Market to Experience Modest Growth

Researchers believe the current global therapeutics market for chronic hepatitis B virus will experience a modest jump in value by 2024, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData.

The market is projected to rise from $2.4 billion to $3 billion across the 8 major markets of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, and China, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.4%.

GlobalData found that the small increase in the hepatitis B market is because of expiring patents of existing branded drugs as well as low diagnosis and treatment rates.

“Low diagnosis rates for hepatitis B are self-perpetuating, as they lead to lack of disease awareness and therefore a dearth of people seeking medical advice or appropriate drugs for their condition,” said GlobalData Analyst Daian Cheng PhD. “In addition, the negative social stigma surrounding hepatitis means that many people are reluctant to get tested. With regards to marketed drugs, the chronic hepatitis B therapeutics market will experience harsh generic erosion following the expiration of such popular branded drugs as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Baraclude and Gilead Science’s Viread.”

Although researchers expect that generic drugs will take up a substantial part of the patient share, ultimately reducing sales and putting a hold on the hepatitis B market growth, they do believe that new product launches will be able to address certain unmet needs.

GlobalData also believes that the agent ARC-520 will have the most substantial impact for treatment during this forecasting period, and will most likely have peak sales in 2024 of over $630 million.

“Three novel adjunct therapeutic agents are anticipated to enter the market in the 8MM over the forecast period, namely ARC-520, GS-9620, and GS-4774,” Cheng said. “These drugs have the potential to fulfill the current unmet needs of a very low rate of disease remission and long treatment duration for most patients. However, substantial unmet needs will endure, particularly as a cure for the disease is yet to be found. Furthermore, there is much room for improvement in achieving the long-term immunological cure for chronic hepatitis B in treatment-indicated patients, as well as for those who currently have no effective treatments available to them, largely due to the clinical limitations of licensed drugs.”