WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ — Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Florida has 1.2 million untreated patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This number represents an enormous opportunity for pharmaceutical brand marketers and sales teams.

The new analytics tools from Decision Resources entitled PatientFinder: Asthma and PatientFinder: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease reveal that treatment rates for asthma among the U.S. states range from 40 percent to 83 percent, with the bottom rank held by Utah. Utah also has a very poor treatment rate in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ranking 48th out of the 50 states. Mississippi ranks 49th in treatment rate for both diseases. However, both Utah and Mississippi represent smaller states compared with Florida's 1.2 million untreated patients.

The result of this under-treatment is that significant opportunity remains for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug market growth in each of these states. This type of information is invaluable to pharmaceutical companies who are challenged to pinpoint the areas of greatest need for their drugs.

Why Pharmaceutical Companies Need this Information

With the type of information included in PatientFinder, pharmaceutical organizations can identify the local markets that offer the greatest opportunity for their branded drug. Companies can identify markets that are underserved and determine if they should increase direct-to-consumer advertising, work with the local managed care organizations to increase awareness of the disease and benefits of their drug or align sales representatives to maximize market potential.

About PatientFinder

PatientFinder is the only healthcare analytics tool that assesses local markets for expansion opportunity by determining the number of insured patients in each territory who have the disease but are untreated. PatientFinder covers each of the 50 U.S. states and 318 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and provides:

— Disease-specific prevalence numbers for each U.S. state and MSA

— Examination of treatment rates for the disease population to create percent treated and percent untreated estimates by state and MSA

— Unique analysis of the untreated population examined through a filter of prescription (Rx) benefit coverage. The end result is an estimate of how many patients are untreated but can afford therapy within each territory — the true local measure of opportunity for pharmaceutical companies

Members of the media are welcome to attend our upcoming webinar entitled PatientFinder: A Novel Approach to Local Market Sizing. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 2 p.m. EST. For more information, please contact Natalia Morales at 781.296.2691 or e-mail at nmorales@dresources.com.

About Decision Resources

Decision Resources (www.decisionresources.com) is a world leader in market research publications, advisory services and consulting designed to help clients shape strategy, allocate resources and master their chosen markets. Decision Resources is a Decision Resources, Inc. company.

All company, brand or product names contained in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

     For more information, contact:      Elizabeth Marshall     Decision Resources     781-296-2563     emarshall@dresources.com 

SOURCE Decision Resources