Chronic Pain

Drugs are the mainstay of pain management and drug treatment for pain represents a tremendous growth area. In 2009, the market totaled $20 billion in the U.S. and $34 billion worldwide. The worldwide market is expected to grow to $41 billion by 2012. In 2009, analgesics plus anti-arthritics were the most widely prescribed medications in the U.S. in 2009, with a combined total of over 278 million prescriptions (Source IMS Health).

Opioid analgesics, one of our target markets, accounted for approximately $8.5 billion of the $20 billion U.S. pain market in 2009. We believe that this strong market growth is supported by the increased use of branded opioid formulations in novel delivery forms (such as sustained release or extended release opioids) that greatly improve pain management. Further growth also is resulting from their use for treating chronic pain.

We believe that additional market growth is supported by:

• a highly concentrated prescriber base
• a demographic shift towards a more elderly population with chronic diseases
• more aggressive pain management
• growing acceptance about the role of opioid analgesics in chronic PAIN