Spending on breast cancer in nine key markets is expected to double over the next decade, according to a new report.
IMS Health says the nine-country market, which was worth $9.8bn in 2013, will reach $18.2bn by 2023, driven by a new generation of treatments and biosimilar versions of existing successes.
Roche’s Herceptin was the highest selling drug in the IMS study, which looked at spending in nine countries including the UK, US and China, and in the five largest European markets.
Herceptin (trastuzumab), which targets the HER2-positive subtype of breast cancer, and tamoxifen for hormone-positive breast cancer have revolutionised treatment over past 40 years.
Although Herceptin still dominates the market, its lead is expected to end soon with a number of biosimilars and new generation agents emerging.
Up and coming biosimilars include those from Celltrion and Pfizer, while within novel will come new classes such as CDK 4/6 inhibitors, CDK inhibitors and PARP inhibitors.
Roche currently dominates the breast cancer market and, along with Novartis and AstraZenca, claimed a 70% share of the market in 2013.
IMS expects Roche to consolidate its dominant market share over the next ten years but picks out a number of other companies that will start to make their mark, including Celltrion/Hospira, Puma Biotechnology, BioMarin, Syndax and Celldex.
Looking at European spending, IMS said the total market for the five top EU countries – the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain – was $3.3bn and analysts expect this to reach $5.1bn by 2023.
Worldwide, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in women as well as the leading cause of cancer death. In 2013 the number of treated patients in US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Japan, China and Brazil stood at around 1.2 million across the nine countries, a sum that is expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2023.