As the market evolves over the next decade current market leaders will lose patent expiry and become subject to generic competition. What’s in the pipeline and which companies and products will prosper?
Pain affects around 1.5 billion people worldwide. In most cases, pain is temporary and easily treated with commonly available analgesics. For some people, however, pain is a debilitating, chronic condition. In Europe, an estimated 20% of the population suffers from chronic pain. As the population ages, the number of people with chronic pain is increasing, particularly from conditions such as osteoarthritis. Chronic pain is also associated with cancer. An estimated 30% of all cancer patients are in pain with the proportion more than doubling among people with late-stage cancer. In recent years, drug development in pain therapy has been focused mainly on reformulations of existing therapies and alternative modes of drug delivery in order to improve the safety and efficacy of existing drug groups.
Pain affects around 1.5 billion people worldwide. In most cases, pain is temporary and easily treated with commonly available analgesics. For some people, however, pain is a debilitating, chronic condition. In Europe, an estimated 20% of the population suffers from chronic pain. As the population ages, the number of people with chronic pain is increasing, particularly from conditions such as osteoarthritis. Chronic pain is also associated with cancer. An estimated 30% of all cancer patients are in pain with the proportion more than doubling among people with late-stage cancer. In recent years, drug development in pain therapy has been focused mainly on reformulations of existing therapies and alternative modes of drug delivery in order to improve the safety and efficacy of existing drug groups.
Pain Therapy Drugs Market
Published:January 2012
No. of Pages: 126
Drugs of the future
This report identifies 75 agents in clinical development for pain indications, of which 26 are in development for neuropathic pain. Among these, six are specifically targeting postherpetic neuralgia. Other indications specified, include: diabetic peripheral neuropathy, central neuropathic pain due to spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis (MS), neuropathic pain in cancer, lumbosacral radiculopathy, and painful neuropathies affecting AIDS patients. Nociceptive pain indications being targeted by developers,
include: osteoarthritis pain and chronic low back pain.
This report answers key questions on:
- What is the current clinical understanding of pain?
- What is the status of, and commercial prospects for, currently available pain therapies?
- What drugs are in the pipeline and what is their status?
- Which companies are set to win, and which to lose, as the pain sector develops over the next 5 years?
While highly competitive, pain remains a sector of high unmet clinical need with excellent opportunities in niche markets
While the pain market is fragmented and highly competitive, it remains an area of high unmet need as current therapies are often less than effective and/or have undesirable side-effects. A number of new drugs are poised to take market share, with Palexia/Nucynta (tapentadol) widely tipped to be among the up and coming market leaders. As the market continues to evolve over the next decade, the current market leaders will lose patent expiry and become subject to generic competition and consequent price erosion. It is generally agreed that sales of novel treatments are unlikely to entirely replace the revenue lost following patent expiry of the current top five. However, there will be opportunities in underserved niche market segments, particularly neuropathic pain, which typically fails to respond adequately to conventional analgesics.
