Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy: Cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular agents fill pipeline

Key Points

The pipeline continues to decline from 4 to 5 years ago where smaller molecules led the way, according to a current state of the pharmaceutical pipeline presentation at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 23rd Annual Meeting and Showcase, Minneapolis.

According to Brian Kolling, PharmD, senior director, pipeline and trend forecasting Part D for Prescription Solutions, a pharmacy benefit management company, the prevalence of cancer and diabetes pipelines are increasing along with some cardiovascular agents, whereas the pipeline of central nervous system (CNS) and infectious disease drugs are declining.

The biggest pipelines are within Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Eli Lilly, and Roche/Genentech. The pharmaceutical approvals have not kept up with the research and development spend, and the "patent cliff" is approaching-meaning that many blockbuster drugs will be losing exclusivity.

Promising cardiovascular agents up for approval this year include:

Many other CNS agents will potentially be losing patent protection in 2012 including Lexapro, Seroquel, Provigil, and Geodon. Potentially new respiratory agents will include more agents and combination inhalers to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In addition, fidaxomicin, an investigational oral anti-Clostridium difficile colitis agent was recently FDA approved. It is a macrolide with bactericidal activity against C. difficile macrocycles, has poor oral absorption, and works primarily in the gastrointestinal tract.