Analgesics Market

Regional Outlook

Geographically, the global analgesics market is expected to be dominated by North America due to increasing burden of pain management and adoption of premium-priced opioids. The growing number of surgeries and prevalence of cancer coupled with penetration of effective pain management medications are the other factors expected to fuel the growth of the analgesics market in the region.

By country, the U.S. is expected to be the most lucrative analgesics market followed by China. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 30% of Americans are living with some form of chronic or severe pain. The reimbursement scenario for pain management medications in the U.S. is further expected to fuel the growth of the analgesics market. Higher penetration of analgesics drugs for pain management coupled with higher treatment seeking rate is expected to drive the growth of the U.S. analgesics market over the forecast period.

China is expected to be second large market for analgesics due to increasing number of surgical procedures as well as prevalence of cancer and neuropathic pain. Usually, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used in China for pain management, but from the last decade the adoption of opioids for pain management has increased at a significant rate.

Besides, extended efforts are been made by various analgesics manufacturers to increase their market footprints by undergoing collaborations, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions with local analgesics drug manufacturers, e.g., Purdue Pharma L.P. and Mundipharma International extended their opioid product portfolio in China in 2014 and 2018, respectively.

In terms of revenue share, Canada, Germany and France stand at the third, fourth and fifth place, respectively, in the analgesics market. By region, Western Europe is expected to be the second large analgesics market due to high penetration of analgesics for pain management. Asia Pacific is expected to witness fastest CAGR of 8.0% (2018-2028) owing to increasing adoption of advanced pain care drugs, government initiatives to spread awareness and various welfare schemes.

Less availability and affordability of high efficacy drugs, such as opioid analgesics, is expected to hamper the growth of analgesics market in Asia Pacific. The Middle East and Africa is the least lucrative analgesics market due to low adoption of pain management medications. Latin America is experiencing a steady growth, but is expected to be less lucrative analgesics market due to undertreatment of pain.

Key Insights

• Favourable reimbursement scenario in North America and Western Europe for pain management, particularly for patients with cancer pain and inpatient pain, is expected to drive the growth of the analgesics market in the regions over the forecast period.
• The North America analgesics market size is expected to represent a high incremental opportunity of US$ 1,476.5 in 2018 over 2017
• Various non-opioid analgesics to treat moderate to chronic pain are under the development phase due to increased abusive consumption of opioid drugs for non-medical purpose
• Various manufacturers are developing opioids with abuse deterrence properties to reduce the abusive consumption of opioids for non-medical purpose, which is expected to contribute to the growth of the analgesics market.
• Asia Pacific is expected to the fast-growing analgesics market due to growing pain treatment seeking rate.
• Various analgesics manufacturers are focusing on to expand their market footprints by undergoing collaborations, mergers & acquisitions, partnerships with local analgesics manufacturers, e.g., Grunenthal and Mundipharma have entered into a license and distribution agreement, under which Mundipharma will promote and distribute Grunenthal’s tramal (tramadol) in China from May 1, 2018.

Factors and Trends Impacting the Growth of the Market

• The number of cancer cases is increasing and so is the prevalence of cancer pain, which is expected to drive the demand for analgesics over the forecast period.
• During 1999–2015, abusive consumption of opioid analgesics for non-medical purpose resulted in more than 183,000 deaths in the U.S.
• Various opioid manufacturing companies withdrew their products and stopped the promotion of opioids, e.g. Endo International plc voluntarily stopped promoting opioid products to the U.S. healthcare professionals and eliminated the company’s entire U.S. pain product sales force. Endo also voluntarily withdrew Opana ER from the analgesics market. Purdue Pharma L.P. restructured and significantly reduced their commercial operation, and announced that their sales representatives will no longer promote opioids to prescribers.
• Undertreatment of cancer pain is a major challenge in the Asian countries, where the percentage of patients with negative pain management index (PMI), which represents the degree of undertreatment of pain, ranged from 27.0% to 79.0%. Whereas, the U.S. (39.1–3%) and Europe (19.1–26.6%) have lower mean negative PMI.

Market segmentation

The Analgesics Market is Segmented Based on:

• Drug Class
• Pain Type
• Distribution Channel
• Region

By drug class, the global analgesics market is segmented as opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), local anaesthetics and acetaminophen. The drug class segment is analysed by both prescription analgesics and OTC analgesics. Opioids is expected to remain the dominant segment due to their higher efficacy in pain management. The premium price of opioid also helps it to generate more revenue as compared to other types of analgesics. The adoption of opioid analgesics is higher in North America and Western Europe due to reimbursements and easy availability. Whereas, NSAIDs analgesics are highly adopted in Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

By pain type, the global analgesics market is segmented as surgical pain, cancer pain, neuropathic pain and other types of pain. The surgical pain is expected to be the dominant segment in the global analgesics market followed by cancer pain and neuropathic pain, respectively. This segment is also split into prescription analgesics and OTC analgesics.

By distribution channel, the global analgesics market is segmented into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, drug stores, clinics and others. This considers revenue generation by prescription analgesics and OTC analgesics separately.

By region, the global analgesics market has been segmented into North America (the U.S. & Canada), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of Latin America), Western Europe (Germany, France, the U.K., Italy, Spain and Rest of Western Europe), Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland and Rest of Eastern Europe), Asia Pacific excluding China and Japan (India, Australia & New Zealand and Rest of Asia Pacific), China, Japan and Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, South Africa and Rest of MEA). Each country and region in the report provides revenue generation by prescription analgesics and OTC analgesics within the forecast period.