US biotechnology sales growth slowed 3% to $48.2 billion in 2009. The slowdown was the result of safety concerns, hiatuses in manufacturing, and market saturation and crowding. Though several promising products are being introduced, the forecast for 2010 is similar, with new challenges emerging: pricing, competition, US healthcare reform, patent expirations and follow-on molecules. With sales growing 8.3% to $16.9 billion, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were again the best-selling biologic in 2009, though their sales growth decreased. Growth factors comprised 22% of US biologics sales last year, though sales declined 9% to $10.4 billion. Sales of hormones, the only class of biologics that achieved double-digit growth, were $9.8 billion, a 15% increase driven mostly by sales of insulin analogs. Sales of fusion proteins, cytokines and blood factors increased to $3.9 billion, $3.9 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively, while sales of therapeutic enzymes, recombinant vaccines and anticoagulants decreased to $1.1 billion, $0.7 billion and $0.3 billion, respectively.

Source: Nature Biotechnology