Despite generics for two key drugs, neuropathic pain market will grow to $8.4 billion in 2020

The neuropathic pain drug market will experience modest growth over the next decade, increasing from $5.6 billion in 2010 to $8.4 billion in 2020 in the key seven global markets (the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan), according to a new report from advisory firm Decision Resources.

In 2010, the leading market segments in this indication were neuropathic back pain (45 %), painful diabetic neuropathy (14%), postsurgical/post-traumatic neuropathic pain (12%) and post-herpetic neuralgia (7%).

DR’s Pharmacor report entitled Neuropathic Pain finds that the neuropathic pain drug market has served as a commercially lucrative secondary market for a cohort of central nervous system therapies, most notably Pfizer’s Lyrica (pregabalin) and Eli Lilly/Boehringer Ingelheim’s Cymbalta/Xeristar/Yentreve/Ariclaim (duloxetine). Increased uptake of these two agents will drive growth while they maintain market exclusivity. However, generic erosion of these two agents will be the key factor constraining growth in the neuropathic pain market.