The Parkinson’s disease (PD) market is expected to almost triple in sales in the seven major markets (7MM*) by 2029, rising from $4bn in 2021 to $11.5bn in 2029 at an impressive 12.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), says GlobalData. The leading data and analytics company notes that this growth is largely driven by the launch of new pipeline products, which are set to address key unmet needs in the space and constitute 42% of the PD market in 2029.

The company’s latest report, ‘Parkinson’s Disease – Global Drug Forecast and Market Analysis to 2029’, states that the treatment is typically focused on symptomatic relief with the availability of levodopa, the mainstay of PD management, and other drug classes used as adjunctive therapies. However, none of the current treatments address the pressing need for a disease-modifying therapy. As a result, there are diverse development strategies and trends in the PD late-stage pipeline that aim to either slow disease progression or offer better quality of life.

Sarah Elsayed, Neurology Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Biologics and novel delivery systems are the future of therapy in the PD landscape. The PD pipeline includes a monoclonal antibody (mAb), a gene cell and a stem cell therapy. Only Roche’s mAb, PRX-002 (prasinezumab), is expected to offer disease-modifying benefits through targeting the α-synuclein protein, and in turn halting the disease progression. Therefore, key opinion leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData believe that it has the potential to revolutionize the market upon launch. As such, GlobalData forecasts that PRX-002 will total $2.1bn in sales by 2029 in the 7MM.”

Conversely, gene and stem cell therapies including Voyager’s VYAADC-001 and Living Cell Technologies’ NTCELL, provide a rather symptomatic approach by targeting the motor fluctuations in the advanced-stage population. The advancement in delivery systems is one of the most rapidly changing areas in PD treatment. This is mostly driven by the market for levodopa reformulations. Leading pipeline strategies include AbbVie’s ABBV-951 (foslevodopa) and Mitsubishi’s ND-0612 (levodopa/carbidopa).

Elsayed adds: “The greatest advantage of these products is the fact that they are delivered subcutaneously throughout the day and night by using a small external pump that maintains a continuous and steady flow of levodopa, significantly reducing the motor fluctuations. This will create improved options for physicians to control complications that arise with the continued use of levodopa targeting another huge unmet need in this space. Therefore, some of these products are set to gain strong market uptake. GlobalData anticipates that the most promising drug in this group is forecast to be AbbVie’s ABBV-951 with global sales of $674m by 2029.”

* 7MM: The US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the UK, and Japan.