World antidepressant market forecast

Numerous antidepressant drugs are now available to treat the 76.4million people who suffer from depression in the world's seven major pharmaceutical markets (USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and Japan), but each of these has been effective in only 50%-70% of patients in clinical trials, says a new study from Decision Resources.

DR forecasts that sales of antidepressants will grow from around $6.4 billion in 1999 to over $8.6 billion by 2009, due to the introduction of novel agents and a modest expansion in the diagnosed and drug-treated populations. In 2009, sales of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors will exceed $4.8 billion, despite patent expiries and generic competition in most markets, and half of all SSRI sales will be accounted for by Eli Lilly's novel fluoxetine formulations, it says.