Looking Forward, the Market for Peptide Drugs Will Begin to Show Increased Market Growth as Drug Candidates in Phase III and Phase II Clinical Trials Gain Approval and Enter The Market.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c38140) has announced the addition of Peptides 2006: New Applications in Discovery, Manufacturing, and Therapeutics to their offering.

To date, three types of molecules have been developed for the treatment of human diseases. These major classes of molecules are 1) small molecules, 2) antibodies, and 3) peptides. Currently, the majority of the therapeutic molecules developed and marketed are small molecules. However, with the recent development in several technologies in the areas of peptide synthesis, screening, stability, and modifications, peptides are now recognized as lead molecules for therapeutics.

This report contains a comprehensive analysis of peptide-based technologies, peptides for therapeutics, and their delivery mechanisms. In addition, it provides a thorough analysis of companies that have developed new peptides and related technologies.

Peptides 2006 analyzes the current peptide market. It features an analysis of therapeutic peptide products in multiple disease indications, as well as an up to date overview of key patent issues in this space. Numerous peptide therapeutic companies are profiled and details of their specialization, capabilities, and services are provided. The Report offers multiple experts' opinion on current application and issues related to peptides. Results from an analysis of a proprietary survey conducted on current issues in peptides are a key component of this report as well.

Learn about critical issues in this space such as:

--Advances made in peptides discovery

--Therapeutic potential of peptides in multiple diseases

--New peptides introduced to market

--Issues in peptides delivery

--Key players in peptide manufacturing, formulations and research

--Past and future growth in multiple peptide segments

--Challenges and obstacles in developing peptides

Questions Answered

--What are the current markets and future prospects for peptides?

--What are the major and minor steps required for the success of peptides in multiple disease conditions?

--Who are the current companies in peptide formulation, manufacturing and therapy?

--What is the current status of key peptide products?

--What peptides related issues are making the news?

About the Author

Dr. Anil Sehgal obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences in 1994 from Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School. He served as Assistant Member at the Pacific Northwest Cancer Foundation in Seattle before joining UCSF. He initiated a molecular marker program in the brain tumor area at UCSF. He has published over 20 publications and presented in numerous National and International Conferences. He also holds several patents in the area of markers and targets for cancer therapeutics. He currently works as an independent consultant for Bio-Pharma companies.

Chapters are as follows:-

Chapter 1: Executive Summary

Chapter 2: Introduction to Peptides

Chapter 3: Peptide Products

Chapter 4: Peptide Delivery Challenges

Chapter 5: Market Analysis

Chapter 6: Peptide Manufacturing

Chapter 7: Application of Peptides in Research

Chapter 8: Peptide Patents

Chapter 9: Company Profiles

Table of Exhibits

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the peptide-based drug product landscape. The report covers emerging market trends, advances in peptide technologies, new targets for peptide therapeutics, individual product examples, improved drug delivery mechanisms, and profiles of companies developing new peptide drugs.

Small molecules dominate the therapeutic market for the treatment of multiple human diseases. The majority of these drugs are low molecular weight, synthetic compounds. Though popular as therapeutics, small molecules have two disadvantages. First, small molecules only interact with a limited portion of the target protein. In the majority of the cases they are designed to target a specific functional and catalytic domain of the protein. Due to size and structure, small molecules may not be effective when targets are large and/or have multiple functional domains critical to the disease phenotype. Second, small molecules can lack specificity and distribution can occur across multiple organs, tissues, and cells. This broad distribution can cause toxicity issues.

A growing number of small molecular weight drugs are peptides. Therapeutic peptides can be made synthetically, by recombinant methods, or by chemical modification of an isolated natural product. Peptides are short chains of amino acids, (approximately 2-50 amino acids in length). Growth factors, hormones, and chemokines are examples of small peptide molecules that interact with cellular proteins to exert their function. Several of the advantages of utilizing peptides as therapeutic molecules include:

--high activity

--high specificity

--unique three dimensional characteristics

--no accumulation in organs

--low toxicity

--less immunogenic than antibodies

The common goal of a therapeutic molecule (small molecules, peptides, or antibodies) is highly specific binding to a target protein that plays a key role in the initiation and progression of a specific disease. A target protein can be present outside, in the membrane, or within the cell. Development of a molecule to target a specific protein target site can require extensive knowledge of the target protein, especially its amino acid sequence and folded structure. Peptides have potential as unique therapeutic molecules because they can be designed to engage a larger portion of the target protein thus providing greater specificity. Peptide drug candidates are developed in a similar R&D process as small molecules.

Although the small molecule and peptide drug development processes are similar, peptides

offer a number of drug development challenges. These challenges are listed below:

--Peptides are less stable in bodily fluids.

--Peptides are more expensive to manufacture.

--Peptides delivery is a challenge due to rapid in vivo degradation by proteases.

--Peptides must be manufactured in larger quantities for clinical trial investigations because their administration is usually on a continuous basis due to rapid degradation.

Peptide drugs currently represent a small but growing number of pharmaceutical molecules. The interest in peptide drugs has recently intensified with key developments in the following areas:

--Modifications of peptides with non-natural amino acids to increase stability.

--Improvements in manufacturing to increase yield and reduce cost.

--Synthesis of diverse peptide libraries to screen large sets of drug targets.

--Development of phage display technology to identify target specific peptides.

Peptides are currently being developed for therapeutic applications in a variety of clinical indications. Some of these indications are: allergy/asthma; arthritis; cancer; diabetes; growth impairment; cardiovascular diseases; inflammation; vaccines; baldness; analgesia; ophthalmology; epilepsy; gynaecology; CNS diseases; antiviral; antibacterial; GI diseases; obesity; and haemostasis.

An analysis of launched peptide drugs and compounds in late stage development indicates that the peptide market is expected to grow in 2006 at a rate of +/-5%. Beginning in late 2007, however,

Phase III and some "fast track" Phase II candidates will start moving through the registration approval process. As these drugs gain approval and are marketed, the overall peptide market is expected to grow at a rate of +/-10% with growth rates increasing toward the end of this decade and beyond.

The current 67 launched peptide drugs, tracked by the Pharma projects database, target one of 29 disease indications, with the disease indications diabetes and osteoporosis ranked first and second in terms of number of drugs. The majority of all launched peptide drugs have been on the market 8+ years. Nearly all drugs launched within this decade are based on established strategies or new formulations and are not considered leading compounds in their respective applications by Pharma project editors.

Looking forward, the market for peptide drugs will begin to show increased market growth as drug candidates in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials gain approval and enter the market. The peptide drug pipeline is robust with the number of disease indications being targeted growing from 29 to 64. Disease areas with significant drug development activity include cancer, infection, and pain--all billion-dollar markets.

Based on comments provided by industry experts, the peptide drug field will benefit from advances in the following four areas:

--Identification and targeting of validated protein targets.

--Development of new or improvement of existing formulations.

--Manufacturing strategies to reduce the cost of production.

--Strategies to enhance peptide delivery.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c38140