Sales, total global pharmaceutical

In 2004 total global pharmaceutical sales were reported to have been about 550 billion in U.S.-dollar equivalents (IMS Intelligence 2005), only a tiny fraction of total global gross national product (GNP) of about 35 trillion (FinFacts 2005). 

Chiral drugs represent a significant part of the global pharmaceutical market. Of the top 100 drugs world-wide, 50 are marketed as pure enantiomers. Their sales were to the value of 42.8 billion in 1997, or 51% of the total of 85.2 billion for these top 100 [9]. 

Animal health is a segment of the life sciences industry at the interface of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Global sales were 15 billion in 2005 ( 14.5 billion in 2004, 13.8 billion in 2001, inflation-adjusted). Of the top 10 companies, 9 are business units or spinoffs from pharmaceutical companies (see Table 11.9). The industry is rather concentrated, with the top 10 companies accounting for 75% of total sales. As they do in pharma, US companies dominate in animal health products. Many of the veterinary products in the portfolios had originally been developed for human use or as pesticides. In the pet (respectively companion animal) segment, which comprises cats, dogs, birds, some rodents, reptiles, and horses and represents about 40% of the total market, the association with human health is particularly prominent. 

The potential for industrial biotech has been broadly recognized and chemical and biotech companies are starting to move into this space and grow their presence. In fact, about five percent of the estimated USD 1.2 trillion total chemical sales already depend on biotech. The global market for bio-based ethanol alone is worth USD 15 billion other basic organic molecules such as citric acid (USD two billion) and lactic acid are produced by fermentation, and so are all but three amino acids (approx. USD four billion) various basic, advanced and active pharmaceutical ingredients produced by the fine chemical industry are worth USD 7.5 billion the attractive enzyme market has reached USD two billion in... 

The modern blockbuster products era started four decades ago with Valium (Roche, diazepam), which was the most prescribed global medicine between 1969 and 1982 with 2.3 billion doses taken in 1978 and the first medicine to achieve peak sales of 200 million. It was later joined by benzodiazapine, antibiotics, and non-stroidal analgesics and by several innovative medicines like Captopril, Capoten, and Mevacor in the 1980-1990 period [9-13]. The period of billion-dollar pharmaceutical brands started 10 years ago and of biotechnology brands about 5 years ago. A commercial report estimated the total blockbuster medicine sales in 2005 at 145 billion and forecasted strong growth in biologies [14]. 

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