Global Clostridium difficile infections market to hit $1.5b by 2024

The global therapeutics and prophylactics market for Clostridium difficile infections will expand more than fourfold from $356.3 million in 2014 to over $1.5 billion by 2024, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData.

The company’s latest report, OpportunityAnalyzer: Clostridium difficile Infections (CDIs) – Opportunity Analysis and Forecasts to 2024, states that this increase, which will occur across the seven major markets of the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan, will be driven by the modest uptake of patent-protected, Clostridium difficile infection-specific antibiotics and the arrival of novel non-antibiotic approaches to treat and prevent recurrent Clostridium difficile infections.

Marc C. Hansel, Ph.D., GlobalData’s Healthcare Industry Analyst, says that while Merck will lead the Clostridium difficile infections treatment landscape during the forecast period, several other competitors, such as Sanofi Pasteur, Rebiotix, and Seres Health could also take a sizeable share of the market by 2024.

Hansel comments, “GlobalData anticipates that Merck’s Dificid will be the antibiotic market leader due to its first-to-market status and uncertainty over whether the current pipeline antibacterials, such as Actelion’s cadazolid, Merck’s surotomycin, and Summit Therapeutics’ SMT19969, will provide improved clinical benefits in terms of higher initial cure rates and lower recurrence rates.

“Adjunctive therapies, such as Merck’s bezlotoxumab, Seres Therapeutics’ SER-109, and Rebiotix’s RBX2660, will be primarily prescribed for patients at high risk of recurrence or those with multiple recurrent infections, but uptake could be limited by the high cost of these therapies.”

Prophylactic vaccines to contribute to the increase in the treatment market

The analyst adds that prophylactic vaccines, led by Sanofi Pasteur’s ACAM-CDIFF, will also contribute to the increase in Clostridium difficile infections treatment market over the forecast period, and GlobalData projects a modest uptake of vaccines once they are approved in the seven major markets.

Hansel continues, “Opportunity remains to position a rationally-designed microbiologic as a prophylactic option to prevent infections in high-risk patients, as no current late-stage company is positioning one to be used in this manner.

“An early-stage prophylactic pipeline player to watch is Synthetic Biologics’ SYN-004, which has tremendous potential, but is still in the early phases of clinical development and remains unproven in a large efficacy trial.”