Organ Donor Shortage Remains Obstacle for Would-Be Transplant Patients Despite Better Medicine

New York, February 4, 2008/PRNewswire — There is a large and growing “treatment gap” between the number of patients worldwide who would benefit from an organ transplant and the number of organs available, a gap that is impacting transplant medicine markets, according to a new market research report from Kalorama Information, Organ Transplant Immunosuppressive Markets.

In the US, over 97,000 patients were on the United Network for Organ Sharing’s list, while just 28,000 received a transplant. Other countries show similar gaps. This gap was first evident in 1998 and has increased every year.

Immunosuppressives, drugs, which prevent the immune system from rejecting a new organ, may have become victims of their own success. Medicines such as Astella’s Prograf and Roche’s CellCept have reduced incidence of acute organ rejection and made transplantation a viable option in more cases, thus increased organ waiting lists. Kidney acute rejection rates alone decreased from 51% in 1996 to 13% eight years later as a result of these therapies. Over $5 billion worth of these drugs were sold in 2007.

“The pharmaceutical industry has created effective medications, and now the challenge is in the public policy arena,” said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. “Awareness of the need for organ donation must be increased for the demand to be completely served. Volunteer efforts towards more organ donation have so far not been sufficient.”

Despite the shortage, the study indicates that the marketplace for immunosuppressives will still grow at nearly five percent for the next five years due to an small increase in transplant operations and increased survival rates of patients who will require treatment for a longer period. But the study stresses that solving the donor shortage would lead to exponential growth in transplant medicine markets.

Organ Transplant Immunosuppressive Markets provides detailed statistics, market size and forecasts, trends and competitive analysis for kidney, liver, lung heart and intestine transplants.

About Kalorama Information
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