Pharma's next cash cows could be specialized treatments
Summary
Drugmakers facing major patent expirations are increasingly pursuing specialized treatments, including biologics, rare-disease medicines and therapies tailored to patients. These drugs could create new revenue, but high prices, manufacturing challenges and difficulties securing insurance coverage may limit their benefits for patients.Key Facts
- Evaluate estimates that more than $500 billion in brand-name drug sales could face generic competition from 2026 to 2032.
- An Iqvia Institute report says companies are seeking new medicines with at least $2.4 billion in global sales.
- The report identifies specialty treatments, biologics and rare-disease drugs as increasingly important sources of sales.
- GLP-1 medicines such as Ozempic and Zepbound have become leading high-selling drugs.
- The article says RNA drugs and cell and gene therapies can be costly, difficult to manufacture and aimed at small patient groups.
- Eliquis and Keytruda are both due to lose market exclusivity in 2028; together they had $65 billion in global sales in 2024.
- Evaluate predicts autoimmune drugs may be the only category to approach GLP-1 medicines in potential, because they may treat many conditions.
- Iqvia identifies RNA therapeutics as a possible middle ground between traditional drugs and highly specialized genetic treatments.
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