Decision Resources, a research and advisory firm for pharmaceutical
and healthcare issues, finds that in 2010, the global pharmaceutical market
continued to show declining growth. According to new data from Decision
Resources’ Pharmaview suite, global pharmaceutical sales grew year-over-year by
a mere 3.2 percent to reach $669 billion, compared with 3.5 percent
year-over-year growth in 2009 and 7.5 percent year-over-year growth in 2008.
Over the next seven years, the global market is expected to record a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.2 percent, reaching $778 billion in 2017.

In the United
States, sales continued to stagnate, with
0.7 percent year-over-year growth in 2010, increasing to $283 billion. The U.S. market
will continue to idle, with an expected CAGR of 1.7 percent between 2010 and
2017, reaching $318 billion in 2017.

“The limited growth is not surprising as patent
expires, payer cost-containment strategies and lack of research and development
productivity continue to negatively impact the pharmaceutical market,” said
Decision Resources’ Pharmaview Director Alasdair Milton, Ph.D.

“In response, many large pharmaceutical companies are
revamping R&D efforts, diversifying their business models into consumer
health and generics, and collaborating with small biotechs and peer companies.

They are also looking at emerging markets; while the sheer
size of patient numbers involved make these geographies attractive targets, companies
should realize that doing business in these areas poses its own unique
challenges.” The sales findings are from the most recent release of
Decision Resources’ Pharmaview, which assesses the commercial aspect of the global
pharmaceutical market and provides continually updated analysis of more than
2,200 drugs from more than 240 companies, covering 150 product classes and 14
therapy areas. Pharmaview also provides company profiles on the leading players
in the pharmaceutical market, recently adding Otsuka to its coverage.