GIA explained that: “Primary drivers of growth, especially in the traditional pulmonary inhalables market, include rising incidence of respiratory disorders, the growing prevalence of asthma and COPD as chronic lifestyle induced disorders, and increasing importance of drug self-administration for chronic conditions.”
The group predicted that this upswing in demand will expand the global market from its current value of some $19bn (€14bn) to $37.7bn by 2015, with dry powder inhalation in the post-CFC era being the major growth area.
“DPI is progressively emerging as an important contender among pulmonary drug delivery methods,” they explained, adding that developments in devices, powder formulations and particle engineering are critical to the expansion.
All of which would be good news for companies like 3M, Alkermes, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) which all have considerable DPI development programmes.
Systemics the future?
However, in the longer term, the GIA expects the market to change. They explained that while pulmonary products will continue to dominate for the next five years, in the future systemic drugs will become the key drivers.
They went on to say that: “The success of systemic inhalable therapies is therefore forecast to play the trump card in determining the market's growth in the upcoming years.”
One company sure to hope that GIA’s predictions are correct is US biotech MannKind which, despite a number of recent regulatory setbacks, still aims to bring its inhalable insulin drug Afrezza to market as soon as possible.