TheraQuest Biosciences - Pain Management

Pain Management

Pain Market

Drugs are the mainstay of pain management and drug treatment for pain represents a tremendous growth area. In 2005, the market totaled $19 billion in the U.S. and $30 billion worldwide. This represents an approximately 6% compounded annual growth rate in the U.S. since 2001. The worldwide market is expected to grow to $35 billion by 2010. In 2005, analgesics were the fourth most prescribed medication in the U.S., with over 246 million prescriptions.

Opioid analgesics, one of our target markets, accounted for approximately $8.2 billion of the $19 billion U.S. pain market in 2005. This represents a compounded annual growth rate of 10% since 2001. 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 opioids) that greatly increase opioid efficacy and patient ease of use. Further growth also is resulting from their use for treating chronic non-malignant pain.

We believe that additional market growth is supported by:

assessment of pain as a mandatory fifth vital sign by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)
publication of a consensus statement from the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Pain Society on opioid use in chronic non-malignant pain
publication and widespread dissemination of clinical practice pain guidelines by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality
population demographic shift towards a more elderly population with chronic diseases
more aggressive clinician attitudes about the importance of pain management
growing acceptance about the role of opioid analgesics in chronic pain
highly concentrated pain drug prescriber base