Analgesics

‘Pain’ is defined in broad terms as an unpleasant sensory experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Despite pain being a difficult condition to treat effectively, it is a large therapeutic market. In 2004, a report by Jain PharmaBiotech estimated that the worldwide market for pain management drugs would total approximately US$50 billion in 2005, an average annual rate of growth of 10% per annum since 2002. Furthermore, by 2010, Jain estimated that the worldwide market value of pain therapies will have grown to US$75 billion.

Growth in the market for pain drugs is driven by factors including:

• demographic change such as an aging population;
• increased awareness of the medical and economic need to treat pain by regulators, patients and physicians;
• integration of pain management across physician specialties and a growing number of specialty clinics for the treatment of pain; and
• medical advances increasing survival for patients with long-term illnesses, and allowing for conditions such as cancer and lower back pain to be treated surgically, increasing pain drug usage in post-surgical settings.