Increasing Diagnosis Rates and Growing Use of Key Agents Such as Pfizer's Lyrica Will Drive Eight Percent Annual Growth in the Fibromyalgia Drug Market Th...( WALTHAM Mass. July 13 /- Decision Res...),Health

WALTHAM, Mass., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that increased use of key agents such as Pfizer's Lyrica, Eli Lilly/Boehringer Ingelheim's Cymbalta/Xeristar/Ariclaim and Forest Laboratories/Cypress Bioscience's Savella will drive eight percent annual growth in the fibromyalgia market through 2018 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

The new Pharmacor report entitled Fibromyalgia also finds that improved diagnosis of the disorder and an expanding drug-treated population will be major market drivers over the next decade, particularly in the U.S. where the greatest growth in diagnosis rates is expected to occur. In the world's major markets, the U.S. accounted for nearly 80 percent of fibromyalgia drug sales in 2008 and will continue to account for more than two-thirds of fibromyalgia drug sales through 2018. Expansion of the market in Europe and Japan will be constrained by a dearth of approved therapies, lower diagnosis rates and less widespread recognition of the disorder.

"Uptake of Lyrica and Cymbalta/Xeristar/Ariclaim will be limited in Europe because both agents received a negative opinion from European regulatory authorities for approval for fibromyalgia," said Decision Resources Analyst Andrea Buurma, B.A. "Although the decision for Savella has not been made yet, regulators' initial refusal to recommend Lyrica's and Cymbalta's marketing authorizations for fibromyalgia indicates more rigorous standards in this region -- it is not clear whether Savella will be able to meet these standards."

The report also finds that, owing to its status as the first-ever approved agent for fibromyalgia and its favorable safety and tolerability profile, Lyrica will remain the dominant U.S. patient and market share leader through 2018 for fibromyalgia treatm
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