With many biologic drugs treating diseases of old age like cancer and arthritis, whose incidence is on the rise in Europe and the US, the use of biologics is set to increase. This to the extent that the sector is projected to be responsible for driving growth of the pharmaceutical market as a whole through 2012.

The complex development and manufacturing processes, and/or market dominance commonly associated with biologics means that they are priced at a considerable premium to small molecule drugs (1). The need to constrain rising pharmaceutical expenditure is therefore driving the emergence of biosimilars in Europe and the US.

According to a new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor, payers, physicians and pharmacists are making decisions now which will impact on the rate and extent of biosimilars uptake. While the outlook for biosimilars is positive, this is contingent on them delivering the cost-savings they promise.

With the approval framework for biosimilars already in place and biosimilars for two biologics drug classes – recombinant growth hormone and epoetin alpha – already on the market, Europe is well ahead of the US which is still hammering out the details for biosimilars approval.

However, biologics use in Europe is comparatively low. Sales of anemia drug epoetin in 2007 totalled just $2,240m in the five major markets of Europe, compared with $8,301m in the US. The US market therefore represents a significantly more profitable biosimilars market than Europe, albeit one that has yet to take off.

While Europe is driving the uptake of biosimilars, some member states are likely to be more accepting than others. Biosimilars uptake in the traditionally more generics-friendly markets of Germany and the UK for example will be more rapid than in countries such as Spain and Italy, where generics use has been relatively low. Indeed it is unsurprising that Germany was the first country that biosimilar epoetin was launched, in 2007.

Related research: Biosimilars Series: Stakeholder Analysis