So how will the pharmaceutical industry fare in 2017 and beyond? A DCAT Week ’17 education program, Pharma Industry Outlook: Market Overview and Executive Insights, will provide the latest market data and executive insight on the issues impacting drug development and commercialization.

In planning business strategies, pharmaceutical companies, contract development and manufacturing organizations, contract manufacturing organizations, and suppliers need to know how the global pharmaceutical market is performing, its strengths and weaknesses, and the trends and issues that will drive drug development and commercialization.

These issues will be addressed at one of the education programs at DCAT Week ’17, Pharmaceutical Industry Outlook: Market Overview and Executive Insights, which will be held on Monday March 20 from 1:15 to 4:30 PM.

Pharmaceutical industry performance
Leading off the program will be Graham Lewis, vice president of global pharma strategy, QuinitlesIMS, who will provide the latest market data on the current and projected performance of the global pharmaceutical industry. A recent analysis by QuintilesIMS projects that the global pharmaceutical industry will grow at a compound annual rate of 4% to 7% through 2021, down from the nearly 9% growth level seen in 2014 and 2015. On a volume basis, the total volume of medicines consumed globally will increase by about 3% annually through 2021, only modestly faster than population and demographic shifts. Issues of pricing, market-access pressures, lower volume growth in emerging markets, and further generic-drug incursion will contribute to the lower rate of growth, according to the analysis.

The presentation will examine in detail key questions impacting the growth prospects of the global pharmaceutical industry:

• How will the US market, the number one market in the global pharmaceutical industry, fare?
• What will be the mix between small molecules and biologics and between primary and specialty products?
• Will emerging markets continue to be a source of growth or are their prospects waning?
• Is the blockbuster model back or will niche products be the wave of the future?
• What is the market outlook for generics?

Prospects in leading therapeutic areas
Also important are growth prospects in therapeutic areas to understand which products may hold the greatest opportunities not only for pharmaceutical companies but also for suppliers supporting production of these drugs. To that end, this education program will take an in-depth look at the autoimmune market with a presentation by Christina Vasiliou, senior immunology & inflammation analyst, Datamonitor Healthcare.

The autoimmune market is one of the most important therapeutic sectors in developed markets, and growth in the markets for oncology, autoimmune, and diabetes drugs will drive much of the growth in the overall pharmaceutical industry through 2012. The autoimmune market is led by one of the industry’s top-selling drugs, AbbVie’s Humira (adalimumab), which posted 2016 sales of $16 billion. According to the recent QuintilesIMS analysis, biologic treatments for autoimmune diseases, including treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and a range of related disorders continue to see increasing usage across geographies and will reach between $75 billion and $90 billion in spending by 2021, up 11–14%. In addition, biosimilar products—those approved as similar to an originator reference biologic product—will be available for several of the leading autoimmune products by 2021, which will impact the future growth prospects for this sector. The presentation by Datamonitor Healthcare at DCAT Week ’17 will delve deeper into the autoimmune market by offering data and insight of leading commercial products, pipeline contenders, and upcoming generic competition, including biosimilars as well as provide analysis on the strategic implications for the pharmaceutical companies positioned in this market. 

Executive insights: macro trends
In considering the performance of the global pharmaceutical industry, it is important to assess the overarching issues that will impact drug development and commercialization, such as the impact of healthcare reform, drug pricing, and research and development productivity. To gain a perspective, in a new session, Executive Forum, at the Pharma Industry Outlook program, John LaMattina, PhD, former senior vice president, Pfizer Inc., and former president, Pfizer Global Research and Development, who has more than 30 years of experience in the industry, will discuss these salient issues and others in an on-stage interview with Kenneth I. Kaitin, director of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, an independent, academic, non-profit research group at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, which is recognized for its research on issues impacting the nature and pace of pharmaceutical development.

Dr. Mattina, who is currently a senior partner with PureTech Health, a biopharmaceutical investment company, is also an author and contributor to Forbes, where he provides thought-provoking and candid views on the pharmaceutical industry. He is the author of two books: Drug Truths: Dispelling the Myths About Pharma R&D and Devalued and Distrusted – Can the Pharmaceutical Industry Restore Its Broken Image? . His articles at Forbes cover a range of topical issues impacting the pharmaceutical industry,  including on reimbursement and pricing issue, healthcare reform, and R&D productivity. 

As a special benefit, registrants will be able to submit questions in advance to Dr. Mattina in order to gain first-hand insight from a seasoned pharmaceutical executive on the macro trends impacting the pharmaceutical industry. Once registered, DCAT will provide registrants the opportunity to submit those questions. Stay tuned for details. 

Further information on this education program, including how to register, may be found here. This program is one of six education programs at DCAT Week ’17. The full listing of networking events and education programs at DCAT Week ’17 may be found here. Registration for the education programs can be found here.