Market for cancer side effect treatments to exceed US$24bn by 2010

Revenues from adjunctive therapies used to relieve the side effects of both primary cancer treatments and the disease itself will top US$24.5bn by 2010, according to a new report from Piribo, a UK-based business intelligence provider for the biopharma industry.

According to "The Global Market for Adjunctive Therapies in Cancer" report, revenues for therapies addressing nausea, anemia, pain, and infections, among others, exceeded US$17bn in 2005, and with more than 10 million new cases of cancer diagnosed globally every year, the market for such therapies is growing at an annual rate of 7.4%. Indeed, between 2003 and 2005 - primarily due to strong sales of biological response modifiers, as well as nausea, emesis, and breakthrough pain management therapies - the market experienced growth of around 15%

However, the report also claims that the scope of therapy options has been limited by "a variety of factors, such as cost and poor healthcare infrastructure, lack of awareness of available therapies and financial provisions", all of which it says have contributed to, and even encouraged, "aggressive cancer treatment rather than symptomatic relief".

The full report includes coverage of r&d pipelines; in-depth company profiles; four-region geographic breakdowns and a look at the epidemiology of side effects, as well as market information, including market size and growth, for 2003 to 2010.