Last week, Becton Dickinson said that the FDA had approved its antihistamine drug in prefilled syringes. The company also plans to introduce 20 to 30 other injectable drugs.

No surprises here since the injectable drugs market globally is set to grow at a 14 percent compounded annual growth rate to reach $43.3 billion in 2017, according to a new report. The report by Markets and Markets found that the global injectable drugs market was $22.5 billion in 2012.

Becton is one of the market leaders in this broad space, which can be categorized into two sub segments - device technologies and formulation technologies. That can be further subdivided into conventional injection devices, self injection devices and others (microneedles, nanoneedles and blunt needle injections) that make up the former category. Conventional drug delivery formulations and novel drug delivery formulations comprise the formulations category.

Conventional injection devices accounts for the largest share of the overall market. North America led Europe in terms of market share in 2012 accounting for more than 40 percent of the market, but when it comes to the self-injection market Europe beat North America.

Myriad reasons are fueling rapid growth in the global injectable drugs market. On the one hand there is rising incidence of cancer and diabetes as well as improved patient compliance. On the other are advances in technology and what the report describes as a "surge of biologics in the pharmaceuticals market."

Aside from formulations and devices, the market can also be broken down by the condition the injectable drugs are targeting - they include autoimmune diseases, hormonal imbalances, oncology, orphan/rare diseases (Hemophilia, Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase deficiency also known as RPI deficiency, Cystic Fibrosis, and Wilson's disease) and others (pain management, allergies, hepatitis C, and aesthetic treatment).

Hormonal disorders accounted for the largest share of 50 percent of the global injectable drug delivery market in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% to reach $21.6 billion by 2017.

Companies that play in this market aside from Becton Dickinson are Baxter International, SHL Group (based in Taiwan), Ypsomed Holding AG (based in Switzerland), Terumo Medical Corp. (based in Japan), Schott AG (based in Germany), Owen Mumford Ltd (based in the United Kingdom), and Antares Pharma Inc.

By Arundhati Parmar, Senior Editor, MD+DI

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