For years, there were few, if any, promising new treatments for atopic dermatitis (AD), but today the pipeline is robust, and a Pfizer-Anacor merger may help both of the companies’ pipeline candidates gain market share, GlobalData predicts.

Anacor’s lead pipeline candidate is crisaborole, and Pfizer is hoping to launch,a topical form of Xeljanz. Both of these treatments are for mild-to-moderate AD. Regeneron and Sanofi’s dupilumab for severe AD is set to launch in the second quarter of 2017.

Crisaborole will face some competition. Medimetriks, for example, has licensed a pipeline candidate from Otsuka and collaborated with Knight Therapeutics in order to strengthen its marketing potential.

Pfizer backing the launch of crisaborole across the seven major markets of the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Japan, would substantially increase the available patient population for the drug, involving a further six million treatable patients by 2024, the report suggests. Crisaborole has also set itself apart from the competition with significant investment into proving its safety in pediatric patients, a largely underserved demographic.

While Anacor’s crisaborole will benefit from Pfizer in terms of marketing power, its release will subsequently pave the way for Pfizer to launch topical Xeljanz, the report states.