BURLINGTON, Mass., Feb. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the market for breast cancer therapies in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will grow eight percent annually over the next five years, from $1.7 billion to $2.5 billion. The market's growth can be attributed to the launch of several premium priced agents, a gradual increase in the use of targeted therapies and a rise in the incident population.

According to the Emerging Markets report entitled Breast Cancer in the BRIC Markets, the Brazilian breast cancer market is currently the largest of the BRIC and accounts for 50 percent of the total market share for breast cancer therapies. However, while these market shares will remain consistent, the Chinese market is anticipated to develop the most through 2017.

"Among the BRIC nations, China will experience the greatest growth over the forecast period," said Decision Resources Analyst Andreia Ribeiro, Ph.D. "This will primarily be driven by the rising number of incident cases and changes in medical practice towards more personalized treatments, especially trastuzumab and GlaxoSmithKline's soon-to-launch Tykerb."

The report findings reveal that HER2-targeting agent trastuzumab (Roche's Herceptin) is the brand leader in sales across all the BRIC markets in 2012, and in 2017, it maintains its premium position despite loss of market share. Overall, the use of targeted therapies is expected to increase in the BRIC, garnering sales of $615 million to $1.16 billion between 2012 and 2017. Increased and improved patient access to these costlier agents – aided by the entry of a biosimilar version of trastuzumab – will be major drivers of sales in these markets.

Growth of the breast cancer markets in the BRIC will also be determined by the launch of several new therapies over the forecast period, which will be comprised of novel and modified HER2-targeting agents (Roche's Perjeta and Roche's antibody-drug conjugate, trastuzumab-DM1), novel chemotherapeutic agents (Eisai's Halaven and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Ixempra) and a novel targeted therapy (Novartis's Afinitor). Together, these emerging therapies will contribute approximately nine percent to overall breast cancer sales in the BRIC markets in 2017.

The new report features extensive primary research with BRIC oncologists as well as a market outlook for key drugs through 2017 and breast cancer epidemiology through 2021.

About Emerging Markets Reports
Decision Resources is the first and only company to offer a syndicated report series for high-growth emerging markets with comprehensive disease-specific analysis. Each report assesses the commercial opportunity in the pharmaceutical market for a disease based on population demographics, economic development, disease epidemiology and changing physicians' practices.

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SOURCE Decision Resources