Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - Essay Example

Work Shop Table of Contents Introduction 3 Results and Discussions 3 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is allied with significant chronic comorbid illnesses, comprising asthma, diabetics and hypertension disease. These diseases have high probability of occurrence as observed through the statistics in the age group beyond 45 years. It is observed that the causes for the mortality and morbidity are more due to these diseases as compared to other chronic diseases. Asthma has the highest number of occurrences as it is a long-term condition which causes cough, wheezing and breathlessness. It is mainly caused due to the ‘inflammable of the airways’. Dust, animal fur, smoke, and cold air are the few reasons which cause asthma to occur at an accelerative rate. The other severe disease which has high occurrence in people is diabetes in which the level of glucose and sugar in the blood increases. The key reason for the increase in the level of glucose primarily is food intake. The insulin is a kind of hormone which assists the glucose to get in the cells to derive energy. The causes of diabetes are partially inherent and also lifestyle based. With the changing lifestyle and the increasing intake of the junk foods, the occurrence of the disease is high. Poor diet and lack of physical activity cause the disease and make it one of the common diseases in the healthcare sector. The third and the most common disease prevailing among people is hypertension, in which the arteries persistently elevate the blood. The common cause of the disease is smoke, obesity and lack of activity which are common in the modern day (British Thoracic Society, 2011; Kelly & et. al., 2009; MNT, 2014). Results and Discussions There are six criteria that need to be evaluated when considering the researches. First, criterion to be ascertained is the medical need which has a weightage of 30% as the research for the establishment of new drugs and unmet medical needs are explained in this criterion. The second aspect in the list of the criterion is the commercial attractiveness which covers 20% of the total criterion. It is essential to evaluate the range of the disease spread and the treatment cost of the disease. The competitive situation and ease of clinical trial holds the third and fourth position respectively. These criterions cover a respective weightage of 15% each. The competitive situation evaluates the future therapy options of the diseases along with identifying the revenue opportunity by determining the companies supplying drugs for these diseases. The last two criterions which are taken into consideration are the cost of disease and company portfolio with a weightage of10% for each criterion. This helps in to explain the income of other companies which delivers drugs and then placing the company on the basis of the cost of the disease. Table 1: Weighted Scoring System of Diabetes and Asthma Criterion Weight (Total 100) Disease Area (Diabetes) Disease Area (Asthma) Score (max. 10) Weighted Score Score (max. 10) Weighted Score Medical need 30 10 300 10 300 Commercial attractiveness 20 7 70 7 70 Competitive situation 15 5 75 7 105 Ease of clinical trial 15 6 90 7 105 Cost of disease 10 8 160 6 120 Company portfolio 10 3 30 8 80 Total weight=100 Total weighted score= 725 Total weighted score= 780 Table 2: Weighted Scoring System of Hypertension Criterion Weight (Total 100) Disease Area (Hypertension) Score (max. 10) Weighted Score Medical need 30 10 300 Commercial attractiveness 20 7 70 Competitive situation 15 5 75 Ease of clinical trial 15 7 105 Cost of disease 10 5 100 Company portfolio 10 6 60 Total weight=100 Total weighted score= 710 Table 1 and 2 gives brief ideas about the weighted scoring system of the three diseases Asthma, Diabetes and Hypertension which are commonly found in the people are different on the basis of the criteria. Medical need is considered to be one of the imperative criteria in drug development. This is due to the reason that if the current medication has relatively adverse drug reaction or is unable to check side effects of the drugs, the medical need will be higher. Accordingly, there is a greater scope for developing new drugs. It can be observed from the above presented table that the medical need for the three diseases in concerned have equal weightage i.e. 300 (Hill, 2012). Commercial attractiveness is another criterion to be evaluated. It can be identified that Asthma is widely spread disease among the people which can be perceived to have greater commercial attractiveness but the cost of drugs for asthma is also relatively low. Accordingly, it can be stated that there is nominal scope for drug developers (Drug Discovery World, 2014). The third aspect include competitive situation. This aspects revels the company operating in the market. Correspondingly, the competitive situation for asthma is most severe as the future therapy for this disease would be the “new antagonist of bronchospastic mediator” to improve the treatment. On the other hand, the future option for the therapy of diabetes can be the use of artificial pancreas, however for hypertension no agents are used in the current situation. Consequently, the weighted score for asthma is relatively more (Walsh & Tobin, 2011). Ease of clinical trial is also ascertained to be an important aspect of drug. It is because if the trial is easier than it would be less expensive and can be easily affordable by the people. In this regard, the clinical trial for asthma is higher than diabetes and is equivalent to hypertension. However, asthma does not reflect an ease in its clinical trial and is associated with use of more sophisticated tools such as Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV1) and bronchodilator (Hill, 2012). Moreover, it has been observed that cost of the disease will also have high level of impact for the development of drugs. In this regard, diabetes is observed to have higher weighted score of 160 whereas asthma has 120 weighted score. The last criterion encompasses the aspect of company portfolio which signifies the degree of expertise hold by a company related to a particular disease. Notably, the high score pertaining to company portfolio reveals the greater success of the drug. Accordingly, asthma is ascertained to have higher company portfolio which is estimated to be 80 while other diseases including diabetes and hypertension were observed to have relatively lower weighted score i.e. 60 and 30 respectively (Akinbami & et. al., 2012). Conclusion With the evaluation of the criteria and the weighted score, it is observed that asthma has obtained the highest score of 780 because of its severity and the availability of the drugs. It is quite profitable for the company to develop drugs pertaining to Asthma as it has a wider market in comparison to other diseases such as Diabetes and hypertension. At the same time there lays certain degree of risk for the company due to the presence of large number of competitors. On the other hand drugs for diabetes have relatively higher side effect rates and hypertension already has numerous therapies in the present market scenario. Moreover, the asthma have high company portfolio than other two diseases which advocates the greater success for the company. References Akinbami, L. J. & et. al., 2012. Trends in Asthma Prevalence, Health Care Use, and Mortality in the United States, 2001–2010. NCHS Data Brief, No. 94, pp. 1-8. British Thoracic Society, 2011. British Guideline on the Management of Asthma. Quick Reference Guide, pp. 1-23. Drug Discovery World, 2014. Media Info. Therapeutics. [Online] Available at: http://www.ddw-online.com/therapeutics/p146758-stem-cell-therapies:-assessing-the-commercial-opportunity-summer-09.html [Accessed February 4, 2014]. Hill, R. G., 2012. Drug Discovery and Development: Technology in Transition. Elsevier Health Sciences. Kelly, E. J. & et. al., 2009. Value-Based Benefit Design and Healthcare Utilization in Asthma, Hypertension, and Diabetes. Managed Market Network, pp. 1-3. MNT, 2014. What is hypertension? What causes hypertension? Articles. [Online] Available at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/150109.php [Accessed February 4, 2014]. Walsh, G. & Tobin, J. J., 2011. Medical Product Regulatory Affairs: Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Medical Devices. John Wiley & Sons. Read More