Unipolar Depression | Pharmacor | G7 | 2014
Last Updated 4 December 2014
Unipolar depression—comprising major depressive disorder (MDD), minor depression, and dysthymia—is a highly prevalent psychiatric disorder affecting nearly 85 million individuals in the seven major markets under study (United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and Japan). Throughout our 2013-2023 study period, the unipolar depression therapy market will consist almost entirely of generic products that dominate treatment, particularly in the early lines. Only a few branded products—namely Forest Laboratories’ (now a subsidiary of Actavis) vilazodone (Viibryd), Lundbeck/Takeda Pharmaceutical’s vortioxetine (Brintellix), Forest Laboratories (now a subsidiary of Actavis)/Pierre Fabre’s levomilnacipran (Fetzima), Otsuka Pharmaceutical/Lundbeck’s brexpiprazole, Forest Laboratories (now a subsidiary of Actavis)/Gedeon Richter/Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma’s cariprazine, and Sumitomo Dainippon/Sunovion/Takeda Pharmaceutical’s lurasidone (Latuda)—will be competing for market share during the forecast period in this highly genericized space. Although the age of blockbuster antidepressants is largely a thing of the past, low patient response rates and even lower remission rates following treatment with first-line therapies leave opportunity for adjunctive agents for MDD and for monotherapies targeting specific patient subpopulations, particularly those with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) or residual symptoms of depression.
