The global sales of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), which stood at $91 billion in 2009, will grow at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2010 to 2015, and is expected to reach $126.3 billion in 2015, says a recent report by GBI Research. The growth will be driven by the rise in demand of generic sector drugs and biological drugs, and the recovery from the economic slowdown will also help the global API market to grow, the report says.

North America and Europe together currently account for more than 60% of the global API market revenue. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing API market in the world, and the global API demand is led by China, India and Brazil, GBI says. The innovator APIs are increasingly losing market share to generic sector APIs. On the basis of synthesis route, the synthetic APIs continue to dominate the global revenues. However, the growth in biotech APIs is expected to be faster in the forecast period, GBI adds.

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