Pharmaceutical Industry

Specialty Classes Drive Pharma Growth to $643 Billion

The global pharmaceutical market grew 7 percent in 2006 to $643 billion, according to a recent report from IMS Health. A rebound in growth to 8.3 percent in the U.S. fueled by an increase in prescribing volume due to Medicare Part D and innovations in oncologics that drove strong 20.5 percent global growth in that therapeutic class, were key contributors to the market’s expansion.

We continue to see a shift in growth in the marketplace away from mature markets to emerging ones, and from primary care classes to biotech and specialist-driven therapies, said Murray Aitken, IMS senior vice president, Corporate Strategy. Oncology and autoimmune products increasingly are demonstrating their value in answering unmet patient needs offering significant opportunities for growth.

In 2006, specialist-driven products contributed 62 percent of the market’s total growth, compared with just 35 percent on 2000. A number of primary care classes are experiencing slowing or below market-average growth due to the entry of lower-cost, high quality generics and switches to over-the-counter products.

These classes include proton pump inhibitors, antihistamines, platelet aggregation inhibitors, and antidepressants. Last year, generics represented more than half the volume of pharmaceuticals products sold in seven key marketing, including the U.S. This trend represents the changing balance between new and old products and the growing genericization of many primary care categories.

Source: IMS Health, March 2007