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The GERD market

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 5, pages 277–278 (2006)Cite this article

Current treatments

Options range from lifestyle modifications and drug therapies to endoscopic and surgical procedures. Today's available drug therapies are aimed primarily at reducing gastric acidity, either through direct neutralization by antacids such as TUMS (GlaxoSmithKline) or administration of acid-suppressing agents such as histamine type 2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs) and proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs). H2RAs such as ranitidine (Zantac; GlaxoSmithKline) and famotidine (Pepcid; Merck) are used primarily for mild GERD. However, H2RAs are less effective when used chronically because of tachyphalaxis. PPIs such as omeprazole (Prilosec; AstraZeneca) block the final common pathway of gastric acid production, provide significantly higher healing rates than H2RAs and are now the drugs of choice for healing severe forms of GERD. In 2003, US$13.5 billion was spent on PPIs in the US, making them the second biggest-selling drug class after cholesterol-lowering agents4.

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Figure 1: Supraesophageal symptoms expressed by patients with reflux.
Figure 2: Prevalence of mucosal injury for different patterns of reflux.
Figure 3

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senior Director of Business Development,

    Ted T. Ashburn & Meera S. Gupta

  2. Pumosetrag Project Manager, at Dynogen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 52 Second Avenue, Massachusetts, 02451, Waltham, USA

    Ted T. Ashburn & Meera S. Gupta

Authors
  1. Ted T. Ashburn
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  2. Meera S. Gupta
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Ashburn, T., Gupta, M. The GERD market. Nat Rev Drug Discov 5, 277–278 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2011

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