Japan’s Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Market to Top $1 Billion by 2020

The Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) treatment market in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries of India, Australia, China and Japan will expand from $1.1 billion in 2013 to $1.7 billion by 2020, with Japan remaining the largest contributor to growth, according to GBI Research.

The company’s new report says that Japan had a 67.2% share of the APAC region’s NHL therapeutics market in 2013. While this will dip slightly to 64.7%, the country’s NHL market by value will reach approximately $1.1 billion by 2020.

GBI analyst Sravanthi Addapally attributes Japan’s expected growth to a rapidly aging population and the launch of new targeted therapies to treat previously underserved patient segments.

“Among the expected launches, ibrutinib for indolent NHL and everolimus for Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma will increase the overall treatment costs and drive growth. The anticipated launches of monoclonal antibodies, such as Roche’s obinutuzumab, will also significantly boost the market,” says Addapally.

Approval of additional indications for Adcetris and the launch of the Imunomax-Y, currently awaiting approval in Japan for mycosis fungoides/Sezary syndrome, will have a further positive impact.

However, Addapally explains, long-marketed and off-patent drugs with generic equivalents in the NHL sector will be negatively affected over the forecast period by Japan’s policy of reducing the cost of marketed drugs biannually.