Cancer drug sales are on track to post an impressive compound annual growth rate of 11.4% over the next five years, according to a report by EvaluatePharma. This double-digit growth rate is particularly noteworthy because cancer drug sales already dwarf all other pharma market segments by a wide margin. Underscoring this point, EvaluatePharma's forecast calls for oncology medicines to rack up an astonishing $237 billion in total sales in 2024. For comparative purposes, anti-diabetics are slated to come in at a distant second with $57.6 billion in 2024 sales.
This brief background lays bare why oncology treatments have been a primary focus for both the pharmaceutical industry in general, and biopharma investors in particular, over the last few years. That being said, experimental cancer treatments do have one of the highest costs of development, one of the highest rates of failure in the industry, and they even frequently struggle to gain traction in the marketplace after approval due to an often-fierce competitive landscape. In short, oncology, despite its promise for unusual returns on capital, is fraught with pitfalls for early-bird investors and pharmaceutical manufacturers alike.
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