Singapore: Despite concerns around declines in R&D, there would be a surge in global sales in the coming years reaching upto $1.3 trillion by 2018, according to Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters.

The report, 2015 CMR Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook, underscores a promising industry outlook with increases in sales and NME launches and with shifting trends in R&D pipeline volume and therapeutic areas. According to the analysis, one third of 2014 launches were for rare indications, mainly within anti-cancer drugs and more than 65 percent were specialty drugs for the treatment of cancer, hepatitis C virus and HIV.

The report highlights that anti-cancer development would continue to attract the highest amount of investments across all therapeutic areas with the majority of recent launches receiving orphan drug status from regulatory authorities.

"This is an extraordinary year for pharma," said Mr Basil Moftah, president, Thomson Reuters IP & Science. "Not only do the critical insights provided by the Factbook challenge negative perceptions, but it demonstrates this industry's continued commitment to creating and employing innovative solutions to tackle its largest hurdles."