Biologic Agents Continue to Outpace Overall Pharma Spending Growth

Did you know that biosimilars account for less than 0.5% of the value of the mature markets biologic spend---but in pharmerging markets, non-original biologics are over 10% of all biologics spend?

According to a report by the IMS Institute for Healthcare: The Global Use of Medicines: Outlook through 2017, and are expected to represent 19-20% of the total market value in 2017. Other insights in the market:

• Biologics growth is driven by Monoclonal Antibodies (MABs) and human insulin, with four out of the top five biologics in 2012 being MABs.

• Development and production of biologics, both branded and generic, is increasingly competitive with a broad range of players, from small to large pharma companies now attracted to the market.

• In many countries with less rigorous IP protection laws, there has been a recent surge of non-original biologics (NOBs).

• The price premium typically associated with biologics has turned them into an obvious target for government savings in some markets. Connsequently, biosimilar pathways have been defined in Europe, US, and increasingly in pharmerging markets in an effort to encourage lower cost competition.

• In pharmerging markets, both governments and patients struggle to pay for biologics and hence NOBs, encouraged by market demand and government policy, have grown very quickly.