Oncology Drug Market Size to Approach USD 200 Billion: Changing Giants, Same Roche

The authoritative research report on the pharmaceutical industry recently issued by EvaluatePharma and IMS Health has made in-depth analysis and forecast for the pharmaceutical industry and global oncology drug development trends. Data show that: 1. The market size of the pharmaceutical industry will expand at 6.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the next 5 years, and reach USD 1.06 trillion in 2022; 2. The oncology drug market will even rapidly grow at 12.7% CAGR. The 6.5% growth and 12.7% growth are significantly superior to the development speed of world economy, therefore, the development prospects of the pharmaceutical market are positive. The pharmaceutical industry and the oncology drug market, etc. will show new characteristics, with the increasingly extensive clinical application of the tumor immunotherapy, more and more attention to precision medicine concept, increasingly far-reaching impacts of generic drugs/biosimilars, and increasingly serious patent cliff. With reference to the latest industry report of EvaluatePharma and IMS Health, this article briefly summarizes the development trends of the global pharmaceutical market, and summarizes and analyzes the development trends of the oncology drug market in the next years.

I. The oncology drugs to occupy major shares of the world pharmaceutical market: the market size to approach USD 200 billion

The development prospects of the pharmaceutical industry in the next years are cheerful. As the most important branch of the pharmaceutical industry, the oncology drug market will reach USD 192.2 billion in 2022, with the CAGR of up to 12.7%. The global incidence and death rate of cancers are still not good. The tumor control concepts are constantly renovated, however, there are still no effective clinical control schemes for many cancer types. According to data of IMS Health, the worldwide spending on tumor drugs and supportive medications grew from USD 91 billion in 2012 to USD 113 billion in 2016, but, the accessibility of the newly discovered drugs is poor. All the above issues are worth thinking about deeply in the future.

       II. Dominating in the oncology drug market: still, Roche

       Roche has been dominating in the oncology drug market, and is a steady "giant"; its dominant position in the oncology field will continue in the next years, however, its "absolute supremacy" is being challenged due to the strong impacts suffered by the Avastin, Herceptin and Rituxan, the three carriages that drive the strong growth of Roche, from biosimilars, with the sales having already fallen out of the TOP5 among oncology drugs.

       The specific data of the TOP5 oncology drugs marketed and in development by sales in 2022 listed by EvaluatePharma are summarized in the following table:

       III. Future trends of oncology drugs: precision medicine, biosimilars, and tumor immunotherapy

       Cancers are not completely defeated at present, however, there is some progression very worth sharing. Statistics show that there have been 68 antibody drugs approved to treat nearly 22 indications.

Related: 2017 Oncology Trend Report: Oncotherapy Becoming Dearer and More Difficult

       The drug marketing cycle is shortened, the therapeutic regimens for choice are continuously increased, and the tumor clinical control schemes become increasingly complex, therefore, how to select the clinical treatment regimen is an issue worth much attention.

       Tumor immunotherapy is updating the tumor clinical control concepts, and PD-1/PD-L1 pathway antibodies represented by Keytruda, Opdivo and Tecentriq, etc. have been obtained surprising progress in cancer treatment, and become strong impetus for the oncology drug market. According to an authoritative report, in 2022, the market sales of Keytruda and Opdivo will reach about USD 10 billion, to become super blockbuster; in addition, the influence of biosimilars/generic drugs will continue to increase, with more evident influences on the market prospects of the antirheumatic drugs; the concept of precision medicine will be more deeply into the hearts of the people, the biomarker detection and typing and other methods will refine the oncology field, and the tumor clinical control schemes will be constantly "precise" and personalized.