Some of the most expensive drugs in the world (lomitapide, ataluren, idursulfase, eculizumab, galsulfase, beta-galactosidase, elosulfase, alpha-glucosidase, metreleptin and alpha-galactosidase), most of which are used to treat rare diseases (Duchenne muscular dystrophy, mucopolysaccharidosis, haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), hereditary angioedema, Pompe disease, Fabry disease and, as exceptions in this group, diabetes and various types of dyslipidaemia), accounted for an impact of R$965.3 million in 2017, for only 1,334 patients.

New drugs have the largest share of the pharmaceutical market, with around R$26.5 billion, while biological drugs were the ones that grew, with an increase of 84% between 2015 and 2017.

Figure 1 shows the scenario of the pharmaceutical market according to types of medicines (turnover in billions – R$). The data are taken from the report of Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, ANVISA) (2017 and 2018).

Figure 1: Pharmaceutical market scenario

Source: Adapted from Anvisa 2018; Anvisa 2017

The US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services and a global research benchmark, projected an increase in spending with speciality drugs, including biologicals and biosimilars, of 6% per year over the period 2015–2022, and not only in value, but in use as well. The data available from 2014 is that 31% of the total cost of medicines relates to this group, although it only corresponds to 1% of the amount of prescriptions.

The following series of two articles show the market outlook from 2016 to 2025 for these medicines and a comparison of the development costs of the different types of medicines: generics, biosimilars and originator biologicals.

Related articles
Comparison of the cost of development of biologicals and biosimilars

Market outlook for biological medicines in Brazil 2016‒2025

Reference
1. Tafla C. O papel dos biossimilares na saúde. [The role of biosimilars in health]. Portuguese.

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