Dive Brief:
- Assuming a compounded annual growth rate of 4.8% over the next five years, global Rx sales are expected to hit $987 billion in five years, according to a report from Evlauate Pharma.
- In addition, biotech drugs are expected to comprise 27% of global sales by 2020, up from 23% in 2014.
- The R&D growth rate is projected to be 2% per year through 2020, compared with a CAGR of 3.4% between 2006 and 2014.
Dive Insight:
Overall, Evaluate Pharma is painting a rosy picture of the prospects for the biopharma industry---and it's a mathematically grounded outlook. Other interesting projections from the forecast predict that Novartis will be the No. 1 company in terms of sales through 2020, and will also spend the most on R&D that year as well---in excess of $10 billion.
There's a caveat: According to analysts, this growth rate can only be sustained if issues related to prices and access are addressed on local and global levels. That means making prices lower in some cases, and also being able to communicate value to payers in order to gain access to larger markets.