Drugs for Breakthrough Pain, Including Therapies From Cephalon and Zars Pharma, Will Drive Growth in the Cancer Pain Market

WALTHAM, Mass., April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that growth in the cancer pain market through 2015 will be driven by the launch of several novel reformulations of drugs in the breakthrough pain segment, including therapies from Cephalon and Zars Pharma. Breakthrough pain is characterized by severe flares of pain that occur despite treatment with medication to control chronic pain.

The new Pharmacor report Cancer Pain finds that the launch of Cephalon's Fentora and Cephalon/Zars' Titragesia will drive the market to treat breakthrough pain. In 2015, expensive novel formulations of fentanyl such as Fentora and Titragesia will account for 30% of cancer pain market sales in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

The report also finds that a key deterrent to stronger growth in the cancer pain market is the continued dominance of generically available morphine, the strong opioid of choice under World Health Organization guidelines for cancer pain relief.

"Strong opioids will continue to dominate the severe cancer pain market," said Ramya Kollipara, Ph.D., analyst at Decision Resources. "Thought leaders and physicians we interviewed would like to see opioid-strength analgesics with better side-effect profiles, especially a lack of constipation, but we do not foresee the launch of such an agent by 2015."

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