Competing in the Wet AMD Market: Visudyne, Macugen, Lucentis and Avastin

Lucentis, a forthcoming breakthrough drug against wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), will be marketed by Genentech in the U.S. and Novartis in other countries. Lucentis will be competing with Visudyne, a drug commercialized worldwide also by Novartis, with Macugen from Pfizer, and with the cancer drug Avastin from Genentech/Roche, which is being used off-label in wet AMD at a cost of only $40-75 per injection compared with the $1,000-1,200 price expected for Lucentis.

New product pricing in a complex environment: consumer segments with widely differing price elasticities; multiple stakeholders (consumers, physicians, third-party payers); different country pricing and reimbursement and off-label regulations; global price interdependencies; product line positioning and pricing.