Oral drug delivery sector tipped for explosive growth

Kalorama, a division of www.MarketResearch.com​, has identified three points of significant changes in the oral drug delivery market, including a change in the customer base moving from pharmaceutical giants towards companies concentrating on specialty pharmaceutical and branded generic products, an increase in negotiated royalty rates (up to 20 per cent) and an increase in the number of competitors offering oral delivery technology.

As an example, companies such as Elan, Biovail have been doing well on the back of strong drug delivery pipelines and increasing financial resources, but smaller players- such as CIMA Labs, Andrx and BioProgress - look set to mount a strong challenge, according to the report.

In the last five years, a large number of product launches based upon oral delivery technologies have taken place, with an increasing number of pharmaceutical giants using novel drug delivery methods to extend their product's lifecycle in the last three years.

Big pharmaceutical firms have long since realised that forming partnerships with drug delivery companies can extend the period of marketing exclusivity of their products and maintain growth of their franchises. In terms of revenues, the oral drug market stake is the largest section of the total drug delivery market worth $35.6 billion in 2006.

"Pharmaceutical companies for their part are increasingly turning to drug delivery to extend the revenue earning lifetime of their biggest products as they approach or succumb to patent loss​," said Mary Anne Crandall, the report's author.

"At the same time, other concerns, such as finding convenient forms and market acceptance of new biopharmaceuticals, and tapping into the growing elderly population that requires products with a level of ease-of-use and cost benefit, will continue to stimulate the market for oral delivery​."