Decision Resources: Ovarian cancer drug market to triple

WALTHAM, Mass. The market for drugs to treat ovarian cancer will more than triple during the period between 2008 and 2018, according to a new report by market research firm Decision Resources.

The report found that when Roche and Chugai launch Avastin (bevacizumab) in the United States and Europe in 2011 and in Japan in 2013, it will have sales of nearly $900 million in 2018, helping to drive up the value of the market more than threefold, to $1.5 billion, compared with $449 million in 2008.

The firm said that despite the low incidence of ovarian cancer relative to other cancers, drug-development activity for it is significant, with 11 drugs in late-stage development. For example, farletuzumab, made by Eisai and Morphotek, is expected to launch in the United States in 2014 and in Europe and Japan in 2016.