Sales of orphan drugs are expected to grow more than twice as fast as non-orphan drugs in the U.S., Europe and Japan in the coming years, as drugmakers take advantage of lower costs for clinical trials and higher prices when products launch, a new report shows.

Orphan drug sales will reach an annual growth rate of nearly 11 percent in 2020, compared with a roughly 4 percent annual growth rate of non-orphan drugs, according to the report by EvaluatePharma.

Total sales of the products will grow from $97 million in 2014 to $176 billion by 2020, representing 19 percent of the total global share of prescription sales, the report said.

The quick pace of growth stems from the fact that Phase III orphan drug development costs are roughly half that of non-orphan products, while the expected return on investment of orphan products is nearly two times greater than non-orphan drugs.

The average cost per patient of an orphan drug is six times that of a non-orphan drug, the report said.

The FDA granted a record 260 orphan drug designations in 2013, while orphan drug designations in Europe and Japan both declined by 17 percent, according to EvaluatePharma.

Read the report here: www.evaluategroup.com/public/Reports/EvaluatePharma-Orphan-Drug-Report-2014.aspx. — Jonathon Shacat

Originally appeared in Drug Industry Daily, the pharmaceutical industry’s number one source for regulatory news and information. Click here for more information.