New Report Examines Neuropharm and Neurotech

by James Cavuoto, editor

A newly published market research report devoted to the neurotechnology industry takes a comprehensive look at the market potential for the industry, including the neuropharmaceutical sector, which the authors say generated $87 billion in revenues last year. The report, titled The Neurotechnology Industry 2005, was published by NeuroInsights of San Francisco, CA.

Though the authors’ view of the neurotechnology industry is more inclusive than the definition we have adopted in this publication, the NeuroInsights report offers a considerable amount of information of value to vendors of neurotech devices, including detailed discussion of the market sectors in which neurostimulation and neuromodulation devices compete with pharmaceutical treatments. The report breaks the neuropharmaceutical sector into three components: the cogniceutical market related to memory and attention. the emoticeutical market related to mood and anxiety, and the sensoceutical market related to sensory and motor systems.

Within the cogniceutical market, Alzheimer’s disease and its related disorder mild cognitive impairment offer the biggest opportunity for neuropharmaceutical vendors. The report details several development strategies currently in use by various firms, including beta amyloid interference, memory improvement compounds, and neurotherapeutic approaches.

In the emoticeutical market, depression, anxiety, and other indications represent a $20.3 billion market opportunity, according to the report’s authors. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors, including Pfizer’s Zoloft product, represent one type of treatment. Other approaches include serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors.

It is perhaps the sensoceutical market where neurotechnology device vendors will see the greatest overlap with neuropharmaceutical vendors. This segment includes sensory disorders relating to vision, hearing, pain, and movement—markets served by many manufacturers of neural prostheses and neuromodulation devices. Of these, pain represents the largest opportunity at $20 billion, but retinal and auditory disorders will affect 15 million and 35 million individuals in the U.S., respectively. Opiates and COX-2 inhibitors are two leading categories of treatment for chronic pain, but calcium channel modulators and serotonin agonists, are two newer approaches.

One of the major trends in the neuropharmaceutical industry highlighted by the report is the use of drug cocktails and polypharmacy. This trend enables startups specializing in a specific symptom to create a proprietary knowledge base, with the expectation that the patient will make use of more than one drug or therapy. According to the authors, the polypharmacy trend gives investors a perspective through which to view emerging treatments. “By classifying products and companies into more refined markets based on their symptom focus, it makes it possible to clearly differentiate varying product development approaches, identify unique drivers for each market and spot emerging investment opportunities.”

Aside from the neuropharmaceutical sector, the report covers the neurodevice sector, which is broken down into neuroprosthetic devices, neurostimulation devices, neurosurgical devices, and neurofeedback solutions, and the neurodiagnostics sector, which includes neuroimaging, in-vitro diagnostics, and neuroinformatics. NeuroInsights estimates the size of the neurodiagnostics sector as $12 billion, growing at an 11 percent annual rate, and the neurodevice sector as $2.8 billion, growing at a 20 percent annual rate.

The Neurotechnology Industry 2005 is available for $4,500 from NeuroInsights at 415 229 3225 or by clicking this link. NeuroInsights and Neurotech Reports have entered a cooperative marketing agreement whereby Neurotech Reports readers can obtain free copies of our two newly published whitepapers, The Venture Capital Outlook for Neurotechnology, and Funding Opportunities for Neurotech Startups with their purchase of the NeuroInsights report.