Allergic rhinitis treatment market to remain stagnant over next decade

The value of the global treatment market for allergic rhinitis will witness minimal growth from $7.2 billion in 2014 to $7.3 billion by 2024, representing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 0.1%, says research and consulting firm GlobalData.

The Company’s latest report, PharmaPoint: Allergic Rhinitis – Global Drug Forecast and Market Analysis to 2024, states that the global market will remain stagnant by 2024, primarily due to an increasing push for patients to self-medicate using over-the-counter (OTC) products, hindering growth in the prescription drug space.

Claire Gibson, Ph.D., GlobalData’s Managing Analyst, said, “In an attempt to retain a revenue stream from branded generics, companies have sought a successful strategy to convert their allergic rhinitis prescription drugs to OTC status, known as the Rx-to-OTC switch, transferring these products to their respective consumer care units.

“Direct-to-consumer advertising, increased co-payments on prescription allergic rhinitis drugs, and stretched healthcare resources, as well as the increasingly competitive cost of OTC-equivalent options, will further drive the growing trend for AR patients to seek treatment independently.”

The analyst adds that of the seven major pharmaceutical countries of the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan, the US holds the largest allergic rhinitis treatment market share of 38%, which will remain the same over the forecast period.

Over-the-counter intranasal corticosteroids set to have a negative impact on prescription drug treatment rate

The introduction of US Food & Drug Administration (FDA)-approved OTC intranasal corticosteroids (INCS) in the US is set to have a particularly negative impact on the prescription drug treatment rate.

Gibson explained, “Second-generation H1 receptor antagonists and INCS are the leading drug classes in terms of market value, with the latter currently capturing almost half the total allergic rhinitis treatment space. However, their share will shrink from 63% in 2014 to 48% by 2024, due to the launch of novel allergen immunotherapies for treating moderate-to-severe allergic rhinitis over the forecast period.

“These immunotherapies will subsequently start dominating the allergic rhinitis therapeutics space, with their sales increasing from 14% in 2014 to 26% by 2024. Their uptake will account for the majority of the anticipated allergic rhinitis drug market growth, and will offset the dip in sales caused by generic erosion of leading allergic rhinitis treatments, such as Nasonex and Astepro (azelastine hydrochloride), as well as Singulair (montelukast sodium) in Japan.”