Overview of the Global Biologics Market

The global biologics market is a subset of the global pharmaceutical market. In terms of market size, the global biologics market represented approximately 19.1% of the global pharmaceutical market in 2016. The global pharmaceutical market grew at a CAGR of 4.6% from US$962.0 billion in terms of market size in 2012 to US$1,153.6 billion in 2016, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2016 to 2021, reaching US$1,475.1 billion in 2021. Comparatively, the global biologics market grew at a CAGR of 7.7% from US$164.2 billion in terms of market size in 2012 to US$220.8 billion in 2016, outpacing that of the overall pharmaceutical market. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years with the global biologics market expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2016 to 2021, reaching US$350.1 billion in terms of market size in 2021.

In terms of geographic regions, historically, the biologics markets in North America and Europe have accounted for a majority of the global biologics market. In recent years, the biologics markets in emerging regions, such as China, have become increasingly active and have shown strong growth potential.

Monoclonal Antibodies

The global mAb market, which accounted for 42.7% of the total biologics market in terms of sales revenue in 2016, is expected to have significant potential for further growth. The global mAb market grew at a CAGR of 8.8% from US$67.3 billion in 2012 to US$94.2 billion in 2016, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.0% from 2016 to 2021, reaching US$151.9 billion in terms of market size in 2021. Graph 4 illustrates the market size of the global mAb market from 2012 to 2021.

Emergence of Biosimilars

Historically, biologics are more expensive than chemical drugs. In addition, because biologics are relatively new with unclear regulatory pathways, generics versions of biologics, or biosimilars, have not been a big part of the overall biologics market. With the emergence of better defined regulatory pathways, escalating healthcare costs, technological innovations, and a large number of blockbuster biologics with near and medium-term patent expiries, biosimilars will become a key driver of future biologics market growth. The global biosimilars market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 53.7% from 2016 to 2021, reaching US$36.6 billion in terms of market size in 2021. Graph 5 illustrates the market size and growth of the global innovative biologics market and the global biosimilars market from 2012 to 2021. In terms of product category, biosimilar mAb is the fastest growing sector. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 74.1% from 2016 to 2021, reaching US$14.0 billion in terms of market size in 2021, representing 38.3% of the total biosimilars market.