Orphan Drugs Finding Home In Markets: Could Be 20% Of All Sales By 2020

By Alexandra Nightingale for Intellectual Property Watch

Worldwide sales for orphan drugs are forecast to reach $178 billion by 2020, according to a recent industry report. Moreover, the orphan drug market is expected to grow almost 12 percent per year, a level the broader pharmaceutical market “could only dream about” with its expected annual growth of 5.9 percent, according to Lisa Urquhart, editor of EvaluatePharma Vantage.

Based on the coverage and analyses of world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the Orphan Drug Report by EvaluatePharma outlines trends and expected performances of the orphan drug market between now and 2020. Orphan drugs are pharmaceutical products intended for treating very rare severe diseases. A specialty market, orphan drugs sales will nevertheless account for 20.2 percent of the worldwide prescription drug market by 2020 (excluding generics) as found by the report.

With regards to individual pharmaceutical performances and products, Celgene is set to overtake Novartis as number one in orphan drug sales by 2020 as its Revlimid (lenalidomide) becomes the world’s largest orphan drug in 2020, with sales of US$10 billion for all indications. There has also been an increase in designations of orphan drugs, with 2014 being a record year. Designations are given by national authorities marking that the drug has met specific criteria to be given the status of an effective and safe treatment.

Other highlights of the report can be found in the EvaluatePharma press release, available here.