Singapore: Gilead's drug Sovaldi for hepatitis C virus, GlaxoSmithKline/Theravance's Anoro Ellipta for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and Gilead's Idelalisib for indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are the leading drugs to watch in 2014, according to a report by Thomson Reuters.

The three potential blockbuster treatments are anticipated to gain more than USD1 billion in sales through 2019, after entering the marketplace in 2014, according to analysis by Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters.

Sovaldi, Gilead's oral NS5B ploymersase inhibitor for treating hepatitis C virus (HCV) was approved by FDA in December 2013 and is expected to reach a consensus of USD2.4 billion in sales in 2014, rising to its peak in sales in an estimated USD9.1 billion in 2017.

GlaxoSmithKline/Theravance's Anoro Ellipta, which contains two bronchodilators for the long-term, once-daily maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is predicted to outsell its developers' 2013 potential blockbuster Relovair in the COPD field, with forecasted sales of USD3 billion through 2019.

Gilead filed Idelalisib oral P13K p110-delta subunit inhibitor for US approval for indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (INHL) in September 2013 and for European approval for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and INHL in October 2013. A US filing for CLL is also planned. This treatment demonstrated significant efficacy in a phase III CLL trial; however, idelalisib faces stiff competition in the CLL marketplace.

"These treatments are expected to be the highest performing from our list of drugs to watch in 2014," said Charlotte Jago, a senior editor for the Thomson Reuters Life Science business, and author of the Market Insight report. "That is not to say, however, that these are the only drugs of high potential this year. To the contrary, there are several other therapies we've identified and which are also worth keeping an eye on."

Among those worthy of additional attention are Eli Lilly's long-acting GLP-1 analog dulaglutide for diabetes and its anti-VEGFR2 mAb Cyramza for gastric cancer, as well as MannKind's inhaled insulin product Afrezza. This will be the third filing for Afrezza since 2009, after the FDA twice requested further information.

"It is interesting to watch the transformation from yesterday's blockbuster drug era to that of the current environment, where precision medicine and drug repositioning are on center stage," said Jon Brett-Harris, managing director, Thomson Reuters Life Sciences. "That said, we see three strong potentials of blockbuster caliber this year. As the pharmaceutical industry searches for replacement revenue streams, our Drugs to Watch report is a valuable tool for identifying therapies that have blockbuster potential, as well as other drugs with strong revenue indicators."