|
A different sort of
animal magnetism
October 2016
SHARING OPTIONS:
Last month, our
features editor and bimonthly columnist, Randall C Willis, penned a commentary titled “I am not an animal,” in which he took to task the zeal with which some companies share data about preclinical successes with animal
models, getting public hopes up for cures way too early.
This month, I’d like to turn that on its head a
bit. What if you are an animal? Specifically, where does the target market for drugs intersect with regard to humans and animals?
This comes from an email that’s been sitting in my files winking at me for months, from business intelligence provider
GBI Research, which supplies a fair amount of the material we use in the “Market News” section.
Citing
research from a spring report they released, titled “Human Drugs For Veterinary Use—Current Trends and Future Commercial Prospects for Crossover
Drugs,” the folks at GBI noted that significant unmet needs within veterinary care, including a lack of drugs for senior animals and underdeveloped
research in areas such as veterinary oncology—as well as a scarcity of novel drugs, diagnostic aids, treatment monitoring and vaccines—are
attracting more and more veterinarians to the idea of treating animals such as dogs, cats and horses by prescribing drugs intended for human use.
Not surprisingly, the most significant drivers of extralabel drug use in animals are financial. GBI noted in its report
that unlike the market for human therapeutics, clinics that treat animals are not just involved in diagnosis and treatment but also have the ability to
dispense pet medications. As the firm states in a news release about the report, consumers cannot purchase the prescribed medications from a pharmacy of
their choice, where there would be access to low-priced generic drugs, and human treatments may be a viable alternative.
“A blockbuster drug in human health generates revenues in excess of $1 billion, whereas the animal health market’s highest-selling drugs
achieve $50 [million] to $100 million, with around 85 percent of animal sales reaching less than $1 million,” noted Deekshita Allavarapu, an analyst
for GBI. “In this way, many manufacturers of veterinary drugs are looking for products already licensed for human use to fill their
pipelines.”
There are legal, ethical and safety issues to consider, but they mostly related to the
veterinary side rather than the pharma side, such as the fact that while mammalian species share many basic similarities in terms of responses to drugs,
responses may differ in notable ways for animals due to differences in biology. Also, if a human drug is prescribed despite the presence of a veterinary-
approved alternative due to affordability issues, a veterinarian could face legal issues.
“Despite such
problems, the intersection between human and veterinary medicine is a very important and emerging area that GBI Research believes will receive more focus in
the years to come,” Allavarapu said. “For example, specially designed clinical trials are currently being run in which pets can be enrolled
alongside human patients.”
How do I feel about this? Well, as long as the animals aren’t in the same
room as the human clinical trial patients, I don’t see many problems—as long as we also steer clear of prescribing new classes of human
antibiotics to them. As much as I love Fido, Fluffy and the rest, we have few enough new antibiotics and too many resistant microorganisms. The FDA just
finally got around to banning a bunch of antibacterials from soap because they have no proven value in such uses and could help promote antibiotic
resistance. Let’s not go down the wrong path with the animals and end up compromising human health in the process.
Back |
Home |
FAQs |
Search |
Submit News Release |
Site Map |
About Us |
Advertising |
Resources |
Contact Us |
Terms & Conditions |
Privacy Policy
|