Global pharmaceutical companies that have dominated the obesity treatment market are now targeting dementia as their next battleground. With the rapid increase in patient numbers due to an aging population, the Alzheimer's treatment market is poised for significant growth following the approval of new drugs.
According to IQVIA, a pharmaceutical market research firm, the global Alzheimer's treatment market, valued at $4.21 billion in 2022, is expected to triple to $16 billion by 2030. By 2033, it is projected to reach $30.8 billion.
As dementia treatments emerge as the next potential cash cow after obesity drugs, major pharmaceutical companies are making aggressive investments.
Eli Lilly is channeling profits from its obesity drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, into expanding its Alzheimer's pipeline. In April, Lilly paid a $10 million upfront fee to Swiss firm AC Immune to expand a collaboration on tau-targeting small molecules. In June, it acquired a candidate for regulating amyloid beta production, ACD680, from Swedish company AlzeCure Pharma for up to $1 billion. This strategy indicates Lilly's intent to build a multi-layered pipeline that includes not only approved antibody treatments but also small molecules.
The prescription of Alzheimer's treatments is also rising sharply. In South Korea, the drug Leqembi, developed by Eisai and Biogen, saw its prescriptions increase from 167 in its first month after its December 2024 launch to a cumulative total of 13,719 by August of the following year, an increase of approximately 82 times. Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a self-administered subcutaneous injection formulation of Leqembi, allowing patients to begin treatment without intravenous administration.
As South Korea enters a super-aged society, domestic companies are also entering the competition for dementia treatments. Aribio completed a global Phase 3 clinical trial, POLARIS-AD, for its oral treatment AR1001 in June, involving 1,535 early Alzheimer's patients, with 1,348 completing the 52-week treatment. Detailed results are expected to be presented at the international conference in Boston this November.
ABL Bio secured a technology transfer agreement worth approximately $3.1 billion with GSK last year for its blood-brain barrier shuttle platform, Grabody-B. Separately, it is expanding its Alzheimer's dual antibody pipeline, leveraging its collaboration with Sanofi on a Parkinson's treatment, ABL301. Oscotec transferred its tau-targeting antibody, ADEL-Y01, to Sanofi for up to $1.04 billion last December, while Dong-A ST presented non-clinical data on its tau aggregation inhibitor, DA-7503, at the recent AAIC conference, positioning itself as a contender.
The domestic clinical infrastructure supports this trend. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the number of approved clinical trials for central nervous system (CNS) diseases in South Korea reached 67 last year, an increase of over 80% from 37 in 2021. Among these, 12 were related to Alzheimer's, the highest number in the past six years.
A representative from a biotech company developing dementia treatments stated, "The Alzheimer's treatment market is expected to grow at an annual rate of over 13%. It will emerge as the forefront of competition for next-generation biopharmaceuticals that integrate antibody, genomic, and brain delivery platform technologies."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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