Therapeutic Areas

Anticoagulant and Antiplatelet Markets

Portola is developing compounds to address the global epidemic of thrombosis. Currently, 110 million patients are at risk for thrombosis worldwide. By the year 2020, sales of antithrombotic drugs are expected to exceed $30 billion. Portola is developing highly differentiated products that could improve upon and potentially replace existing standard anticoagulant treatments, including warfarin, and antiplatelet treatments, including Plavix® (clopidogrel).

Worldwide sales of anticoagulants are approximately $5 billion annually and are expected to reach $10-20 billion by 2020. The acute medically ill represents the second largest market within anticoagulation, after stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, accounting for about 20 percent of this market, or an estimated $4 billion opportunity.

Factor Xa inhibitors, a class of anticoagulants, are widely used for the treatment and prevention of blood clots and are expected to be used by more than 30 million patients by 2020. However, Factor Xa inhibitors can cause clinically relevant bleeding and their anticoagulant activity may need to be reversed in some patients, including those with bleeding-related medical emergencies or those requiring cessation of anticoagulation prior to surgery. No antidote for Factor Xa inhibitors is currently available, and use of procoagulative treatment strategies have potential risks of unwanted thrombosis. The market for an antidote is projected to be $2 billion.

Worldwide sales for antiplatelet drugs in 2009 exceeded $9 billion and were driven by Plavix, an irreversible oral agent with certain limitations. These include slow onset of action, variable response across patients (with up to 40 percent classified as “non-responders”), intermediate levels of maximum anti-platelet effect and increased risk of bleeding. The antiplatelet market could exceed $14 billion by 2020.