Sales of Emerging Novel Pain Therapies Will Represent More than One-Fifth of the Total Pain Drug Market by 2023

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that although strong opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) will continue to dominate the pain market over the next 15 years, novel drug classes will claim over one-fifth of total market share by 2023.

The new special Pharmacor report entitled Novel Approaches to Pain finds that the overall pain market will reach more than $47 billion in 2023 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Japan. From 2008 to 2013, reformulations and emerging therapies in existing drug classes will be the primary drivers of market growth while from 2013 to 2023, growth will result predominantly from the launch of innovative agents representing entirely new drug classes. Therapies representing novel drug classes will expand the pain market by adding to the eight major analgesic drug classes, creating as many as 18 drug classes by 2023, according to the report.

The most successful reformulations and emerging therapies in existing drug classes will be abuse- and dependence-resistant strong opioid formulations, including King Pharmaceuticals/Pain Therapeutics' Remoxy; as well as safer and more tolerable NSAID formulations such as NicOx's naproxcinod and AstraZeneca/POZEN's naproxen/esomeprazole combination; Johnson & Johnson's new dual-acting opioid tapentadol; and longer lasting antimigraine formulations such as GlaxoSmithKline's Treximet.

Of the novel drug classes expected to launch for pain through 2023, the calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists, growth factor modulators, and subtype-selective ion channel modulators will have the most growth impact owing to their potential efficacy advantages over existing drug classes. All three of these novel drug classes are forecast to attain blockbuster peak-year sales.

"The most commercially promising drugs with novel mechanisms of action are being developed for the treatment of chronic pain that is either inflammatory or neuropathic in origin," said Natalie Taylor, Ph.D., analyst at Decision Resources. "Current therapies for inflammatory pain, such as the NSAID drug class, are plagued by safety concerns when administered over the long-term, while current therapies for neuropathic pain, such as antidepressants and anti-epileptics, are associated with inconsistent efficacy."

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    Elizabeth Marshall
    Decision Resources, Inc.
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    emarshall@dresources.com