Diverse Asthma Treatment Pipeline a "Major Investment Opportunity"

The active and diverse treatment pipeline for asthma "boasts a striking level of innovation, with many first-in-class products representing significant investment opportunities", according to GBI Research.

GBI's report, Frontier Pharma: Asthma - Identifying and Commercializing First-in-Class Innovation, states that while asthma therapy development is dominated by small molecule compounds, with 156 products representing 67% of the pipeline, the research and development landscape has moved towards biologics on an unprecedented scale. There are now 60 biologics in the pipeline, representing a 26% share.

Yasser Mushtaq, Senior Analyst for GBI Research, commented: “There is a high degree of innovation across the entire asthma therapeutics pipeline... Between 2006 and 2015, 65 deals associated with asthma treatment have been completed. Of these, 42 involved a product or products with a disclosed molecular target, 14 of which were first-in-class.” However, 88% of first-in-class pipeline drugs for asthma have not yet been involved in a licensing or co-development deal, emphasizing the strong degree of opportunity available to investors.

Mushtaq added: “Investment in biologics, which would have been considered very risky just over a decade ago, has made a remarkable clinical and commercial impact across various indications, with biologics representing seven of the top 10 best-selling products in 2013."