Global analgesics market set to be worth $75 billion by 2010, says new report

The major segments of the pain therapeutics market are arthritis and neuropathic and cancer pain, notes a new report from Dublin, Ireland-based Research and Markets, which describes the latest concepts of pathomechanisms of pain as a basis for management and development of new pharmcotherapeutics.

The global analgesics market was worth $50.0 billion in 2005 and is expected to increase to $75.0 billion by the year 2010 and $105.0 billion by 2015, the report says, noting that calculations are based on the epidemiology of various painful conditions and the development of analgesic drugs and devices.

Most of the currently-used analgesic drugs fall into the categories of opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including the likes of COX-2 inhibitors. Non-opioid analgesics include ketamine, a N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist. Adjuvant analgesics include antidepressants and antiepileptic drugs used for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Management of pain, the report notes, is multidisciplinary and includes both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods such as acupuncture, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and surgery, it adds, and says that various pain syndromes require different approaches in management. For example, the main category of drugs for migraine are triptans such as sumatriptan.