Change in Pharmaceutical Scenario - Growing Need for New and Advanced Drugs

Published On: January 2018

Unnatural amino acids Overview

Amino acids are the building blocks of all life on the universe. Many amino acid derivatives are looked upon as effective drugs for the treatment of disorders such as ulcers, inflammation, liver problems etc. For instance, 4‐hydroxyproline is found to be effective in the prevention of cirrhosis of the liver. Similarly, N‐acetyl cysteine methyl ester hydrochloride is found to be effective in the treatment of bronchitis, long chain 2‐amino alcohols exhibit cytotoxic, immunosuppressive, and anti‐inflammatory properties are factors responsible for growing demand in pharmaceuticals.

The market for unnatural has been on the rise over the past few years. Based on MRFR analysis, the market for unnatural amino acids is expected to reach around USD 9,454.1 million by 2023 from USD 3,743.6 million in 2016 at CAGR of 12.01%. The growth and innovation in the pharmaceuticals, will continue to evolve in future.  

Why is Unnatural amino acids so popular?

There are many applications of unnatural amino acids which includes increase the immunogenicity of self-proteins or weakly immunogenic pathogen proteins and which has application in the development of cancer and antiviral vaccines. Amino acids can activate enzymatic activity or protein phosphorylation in living cells, and photochemistry. Fluorescent amino acids can be used for in vitro and cellular imaging of protein localization, bimolecular interactions, and conformational changes with the ability to place these small probes at virtually any site in the proteome. Redox amino acids can be used as mechanistic probes of electron transfer in enzymes, isotopically labeled amino acids as IR probes of protein dynamics, and sterically modified amino acids as probes of ion channel activation and the mapping biomolecular interactions in cells and identifying orphan ligands and receptors can be achieved by the use of photo-cross-linking amino acids.

Increase in demands of advance drugs. These demand of advance drugs help to lead different biological and physical properties within the peptide and also enlarge the pool of unnatural amino acids which are present to researchers to make new structures. Development of advance drugs will lead the healthcare market globally, and play an important role to maximize the profits of market players.

Factors limiting market growth?

Some of the factors that limit unnatural amino acids market are lack of research & development in the field of underdeveloped region, stringent government regulation. Although, Food and drugs administration (FDA) predefine the specification of amino acids which are used for the development of new drugs. According to FDA, each amount of additive added for nutritive purposes and the amount naturally present in free and combined form does not be exceed with the specific levels which is predefine by the administration. 

Moreover, undeveloped healthcare sector will hamper the growth of unnatural amino acids with in this region. Although there is the high requirement of treatment but poor economic condition leads the slow growth of unnatural amino acids within this region.   

What is future of the Unnatural amino acids market?

Due to rising demand of unnatural amino acids, and increasing applications in pharmaceuticals existing and new marketers are coming up with innovative unnatural amino acid products. For instance, many organizations, especially in the European region, American and the developing region especially in India, the Middle East & Africa. There are plenty of large and small market players available in the market which provide a wide range of products. As there are many large and small market players available, it is very tricky to analyses their market shares. Some of the major players who provide unnatural amino acids includes BASF SE, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, Novartis AG, Bayer AG, GlaxoSmithKline plc, AstraZeneca plc, Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer Inc., AbbVie Inc., Enzo-Life-Sciences, Inc., Ajinomoto Co., Inc., CU Chemie Uetikon, Yoneyama Yakuhin Kogyo, Miat S.p.A., AnaSpec Inc., Aminologics Co., Ltd and others.

One of the major market players Ajinomoto Co., Inc. enters into agreement to subcontract the manufacture of feed-use amino acids to Meihua Holdings Group of China. Apart from the existing products, company is developing new strategies of mergers & acquisitions which increase development in unnatural amino acids applications.

The presence of a number of large and small market players available in the market has resulted in the surfacing of a wide range of products from unnatural amino acids which will create and expand the market further.

Moreover, the ever developing field of pharmaceuticals will witness an exponential uptake of innovative trends out of sheer convenience to impart a better customer satisfaction and effective remediation.