Anti-hypertensive market to slow in Asia-Pacific

The anti-hypertensive market in the Asia-Pacific countries of Australia, India, China, and Japan will expand in value from $15.7bn in 2014 to reach $19.9 billion by 2021.

This is according to a new report by GBI Research, which states that this modest market growth rate (of 3.4%) will be primarily due to the lack of hypertension awareness, which leads to low diagnosis and treatment rates.

Aswini Nath, an analyst for GBI Research, said Japan is the largest anti-hypertensive therapy market among the four APAC countries, valued at $8.1bn in 2014, and represents 52% of the region's anti-hypertensive treatment space.

Nath explained: “While Japan has a smaller prevalent population than China and India, it has a significantly higher Annual Cost of Therapy (ACoT) than those two countries.

“However, the Japanese market is projected to grow at the slowest CAGR in the APAC region, increasing at just 1% to reach $8.7bn by 2021. This is partly attributable to the early patent expirations of [Novartis'] Rasilez (aliskiren) in 2015 and [MSD's] Ometec (olmesartan medoxomil) in 2016.”

GBI Research's report also states that India's anti-hypertensive therapeutics market value will expand at the fastest CAGR of 12.6%, more than doubling from $800m in 2014 to $1.9bn by 2021.

Nath added: “India is the second smallest anti-hypertensive therapy market among the four APAC countries, primarily due to the low ACoT, which is currently less than a tenth of that in Japan.

“An aging population, as well as other risk factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, and alcohol consumption, will all increase during the forecast period in India, leading to rising disease prevalence. In turn, this will boost demand for pharmacological treatment and drive anti-hypertensive treatment market growth.”