COX-2 drugs to spur chronic pain market

Sales of prescription drugs to treat chronic and severe pain fromcancer, low-back injury and osteoarthritis totaled an estimated $4.8 billion last year in the world's seven major pharmaceutical markets (the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain the UK and Japan), according to a new study from Decision Resources. Sales of these products are expected to surpass $7 billion by 2010, primarily as a result of the introduction of novel pain medications, the report forecasts.

Of the hundreds of investigational agents under study for pain control, the second-generation cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors hold the greatest commercial promise, despite the fact that they offer only incremental clinical advantages over current therapies, says DR. The recent success of these products in the large and underserved market for pain therapies exemplifies the significant commercial opportunity for novel agents in development for this indication, it says, noting that they have quickly overtaken traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of osteoarthritis in the USA, the largest market for these novel drugs. COX-2 inhibitors are also penetrating the low-back and cancer pain markets, but less dramatically because they are not formally approved for use in these indications.

The report expects to see continued uptake of COX-2 inhibitors in each of the three pain indications under study, even in the absence of formal approval for use in cancer and low-back pain, and in all market regions, with their most dramatic success continuing to be in the approved indication of osteoarthritis and in the USA.