IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science

Reports and Publications

The IQVIA Institute annually conducts research on trends in four key areas of healthcare: The Global Use of Medicines, Global Trends in R&D, The Use of Medicines in the U.S., and Global Oncology Trends. This research is then offered at no cost to the public in the form of reports that offer a series of visual exhibits, research findings, and descriptive text.

In addition, the Institute offers other content – strategic reports, other publications, and events to further explore report findings – all of which is accessible to the public at no cost and often involving contributions from external, multi-stakeholder speakers and contributors.

The Institute is interested in perspectives on our research and findings from a variety of viewpoints and invites those perspectives in many forums.

Read more about each annual trend report and supporting content below.

The Global Use of Medicines

This annual trend reports explores key drivers behind annual spending and usage of medicines globally, and covers innovation, value, cost, and role of medicines expected in the years ahead in the context of overall healthcare spending.

Key findings:

  • Impact of COVID-19
    The pandemic continues to impact pharmaceutical markets globally, and is estimated to expand the net cumulative pharmaceutical market by $500 billion from 2020 through 2027
  • Growth is global
    Highest volume growth is expected in Latin America, Asia and Africa, driven by a mix of population growth and expanded access. North America and Europe will see very low growth
  • Demand for innovation
    Demand for innovative drugs will drive oncology spending to approximately $370 billion by 2027, almost double the current level
  • Biotech boom
    Biotech will represent 35% of spending globally in 2027 and will include both breakthrough cell and gene therapies, as well as a maturing biosimilar segment

Global Trends in R&D 2023

This annual report assesses the trends in new drug approvals and launches, overall pipeline activity, the number of initiated clinical trials, the status of R&D funding, and more.

Key findings:

  • The past year saw a restoration of pre-pandemic investment flows to life sciences companies in the U.S. after two years of heightened levels during the pandemic.
  • The R&D pipeline remained flat in 2022 with ongoing oncology focus and continued share gain in rare, next-generation, Chinese and EBP segments of the pipeline.
  • Clinical trial activity was remarkably resilient even as the pandemic stretched through 2022, with a 2% decline in non-COVID trial activity over 2021, but a restoration of pre-pandemic growth rates with an 8% increase over 2019.
  • A growing share of new launches in 2022 were first-in-class, reflecting the increasing availability of novel science for patients.
  • Clinical development productivity — a composite metric of success rates, clinical trial complexity and trial duration — rebounded in 2022, reversing a 10-year downward trend. Trial complexity returned to the previous trend after an outlier high in 2021, while overall success rates improved slightly.
  • As technology and data advances take hold across the pharmaceutical development pipeline, productivity is being impacted by a range of trade-off effects on complexity, timing, and probability of success.

The Use of Medicines in the U.S. 2023

This annual report addresses health system utilization and its recovery from the pandemic, how medicine usage patterns have shifted in the U.S., the complex nature of drug pricing, and the impact of out-of-pocket costs on patients.

Key findings:

  • The U.S. market for medicines grew by 5% in 2022, reaching a total value of $429Bn.
  • Health services utilization reached 100% of pre-pandemic levels for the first time at the end of 2022, up from a low of 66% in Q2 of 2020.
  • Telehealth visits fell to 5% of total vists in 2022, down from peak of 25% early in the pandemic.
  • Biosimilars now account for 25% of total volume of reference molecules prescribed in the U.S.
  • The average patient out-of-pocket cost per retail prescription dropped to $9.38 in 2022, down from $10.15 in 2017. Significant spending growth areas expected over the next five years in oncology, obesity and neuroscience, while total net medicine spending is projected to remain unchanged.

Global Oncology Trends 2023

This annual report profiles the current state of research and development in oncology, including key mechanisms, targets and cancer types being investigated, as well as metrics of clinical development productivity.

Key findings:

  • Oncology trial starts remained at historically high levels in 2022, up 22% from 2018.
  • The global number of treated patients has increased annually by an average of 5% over the past five years.
  • Spending on cancer medicines is expected to reach $375Bn globally by 2027, up from $196Bn in 2022.
  • Oncology clinical trial representation for Black/African American and Hispanic patients was 80% and 61% below the 2019 U.S. cancer incidence, respectively.
  • Emerging biopharma companies led innovation in oncology in 2022 and account for 71% of the pipeline.
Strategic Reports
The IQVIA Institute regularly publishes strategic reports based on timely topics in healthcare. Like our annual trend reports, strategic reports are also produced from evidenced-based research.
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