Global biosimilars market driven by patent expiries, cost curbs and emerging economies

The impending expiry of several patented blockbuster biopharmaceuticals and the increasing demand from patients, insurers, and government agencies to reduce drug costs have created numerous opportunities in the global biosimilars market. The global biosimilars market is expected to be worth $19.4 billion by 2014, growing at a CAGR of 89.1% from 2009 to 2014, according to a new study added to Reportlinker's portfolio. The biosimilars market is segmented into peptides, recombinant glycosylated proteins, recombinant non-glycosylated proteins, and others.

The main factors driving the demand in the biosimilars market include increasing user acceptance, low costs and large application area, increasing governmental initiatives, and the emerging Indian and Chinese economies. The major challenges for the biosimilars market are the risks involved with the high investment and the possible failure of the drug during development stages. However, opportunities for biosimilars market is immense, as biologics worth $25 billion are going to be off-patent by 2016; and an anticipated approval pathway in USA will open up potentially largest market, the report notes.

Asia's early commercialization and high absorption rate of biosimilars products made it the dominant market in 2008 with 34.1% share of the global biosimilars sector. The American market is expected to dominate in 2014 after it opens up in 2010. Currently, the global biosimilars market is highly fragmented with major players such as Biocon, Dr Reddy's Lab, Intas, LG LifeSciences, Ranbaxy, Reliance LifeSciences, Sandoz, Teva and Wockhardt. Favorable regulatory developments in the biosimilars sector are expected to increase the market shares and profit margins while reducing medical expenditure.