Pharma giants shift focus towards biologics

Biopharmaceuticals and biologics in particular are coming into their own, according to the latest GBI Research report.

Large pharmaceutical companies are increasingly moving into the biologics arena, a new report has revealed.
Biologic therapies are associated with high costs and tend to be associated with very specific targets.

However, GBI Research's latest report claims that active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) revenues will be boosted over the coming years by increased uptake of biologics across various therapeutic areas.

According to the research firm, many multinational pharmaceutical companies have chosen "to shift their focus towards biologics manufacturing, either through subsidiaries or by outsourcing to specialised companies, as the acceptance rate for biologics increases across the globe, justifying the high financial commitment".

The report also states that while synthetic API revenues accounted for 82.7 per cent of the global API market in 2001, biopharmaceuticals are starting to challenge synthetics' market dominance.

Biotech API revenues grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4 per cent between 2005 and 2011, while the global API market as a whole is expected to increase at a CAGR of 7.4 per cent between 2011 and 2017.