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Meanwhile, blockbuster drugs with global sales of almost $82 billion in 2001 will have lost U.S. patent protection by 2007. This is bad news for brand-name drugs, because generics quickly erode their sales. "THE CLIMATE is very good if you're a generic drug company. "Globally, cost containment in health care is a high priority. Any move to increase the use of generics is very much favored." Especially if a Medicare prescription drug benefit is passed, generic drugs are poised to be more dominant in the U.S. pharmaceutical market than they have ever been before.
The global market for generics was $27 billion in 2001, up 11.3% from 2000. That rate of growth is higher than the 8% estimated for the global pharmaceutical market as a whole. The $82 billion opportunity from expiring blockbuster drugs--those with sales of at least $1 billion per year--is just for starters. "Companies will be looking to make generic versions of the $500 million drug and the $50 million drug. When you start considering what's beyond the blockbuster market, the market opportunity is huge."
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