Pharma Industry Sales To Hit $1 Trillion In 2014, Says CMR Report

A new upcoming report from Thomson Reuters unit CMR International declares that several positive trends are buoying the pharmaceutical industry to an all-time high in sales, which are projected to hit $1 trillion this year.

The CMR Factbook 2014 stated that global pharmaceutical sales reached a record of an estimated $980 billion last year and is expected to climb to a trillion dollars in 2014. On the other hand, the growth rate declined last year compared to previous years due to the patent expiration of several blockbuster drugs. The decline in growth was also attributed to cheaper generic drugs’ domination in the market.

Another significant finding is that the number of New Molecular Entities (NMEs) launches last year was the third highest registered in the last decade. Though the number of NME approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has fallen by more than 30 percent between 2012 and 2013, CMR’s data suggests that the figure (27 NME first launches) is still the second highest number in the last five years.

Around half of all NME launches, such as Kadcyla and Tivicay, are specialty drugs that addressed diseases like cancer and HIV. In 2013, all oncology NME First World launches received Orphan Drug Designation. These include Imbruvica and Kynamro. The report says that anti-cancer treatments still attract the largest investments across all therapeutic areas.

While there has been a decline in pipeline volumes and success rates in early phases of drug development, the number of halted Phase III projects has also tapered off. A stable success rate has also been noted in the submission phase of clinical development. CMR states that these metrics suggest the industry is leveraging its ability to fail fast and cheaply. This gives promising compounds more room and resources to succeed in later stages of development.

The report also ranked the probability of success to market for active compounds. Candidates that reach the ‘first submission’ phase were given the highest probability of success (89 percent) while those in the ‘first toxicity dose’ to market phase were ranked the lowest (4 percent). CMR stated that the growing focus of the industry into areas of high unmet medical need and specialty care, combined with its improving late stage success rates, may prove to be winning strategies across development.

Jon Brett-Harris, managing director of Thomson Reuters Life Sciences, said, “Pharmaceutical R&D is a difficult and expensive process in an industry with high expectations. With much of the recent conversation focused on the hurdles in the pharma space, it is reassuring to see positive developments and an encouraging future landscape.”