US Prescription Drug Sales Tumbled In 2008
Sales of prescription drugs in the United States rose a paltry 1.3 percent last year, as patients sought cheaper generic versions of their medications or went without treatment altogether due to the economic slowdown.
The data reflects a continuation of a slowdown in U.S. sales of prescription drugs in recent years. In 2007, prescription drugs sales in the U.S. rose 3.8 percent. In 2006 the number was roughly 8 percent. However, even those years were less than the double-digit annual percentage sales growth seen in previous decades.
The troublesome news comes from information supplied by IMS Health Inc., which compiles pharmaceutical industry market data.
"Dispensed prescription volume in the United States grew at a 0.9 percent pace" in 2008, a Reuters report quoted the IMS as saying.
Previous IMS reports placed the dispensed volume growth at 2.8 percent in 2007 and 4.6 percent in 2006.Â
In its current report, IMS predicted that U.S. prescription drug sales would climb 1 to 2 percent in 2009. However, the company did not provide an updated sales forecast in its media advisory.
Lipid drugs, those that lower "bad" LDL cholesterol and triglycerides or raise "good" HDL cholesterol, were at the top of the list last year of dispensed U.S. retail prescription drugs on a volume basis, according to IMS. These were followed by codeine and other drugs containing the narcotic painkiller, anti-depressants and two types of blood pressure medications known as ACE inhibitors and beta blockers.
"In terms of overall prescription sales through both retail and non-retail channels, antipsychotics led all therapy classes," followed by lipid regulators, a popular class of ulcer and heartburn drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and anti-seizure medicines, IMS told Reuters.
In parallel with slowing sales growth in the United States, three large drugmakers are bracing for patent expirations on some of their top selling drugs in 2011, leaving them vulnerable to competition from lower-cost versions.
The firms include Pfizer Inc. with its $12 billion-a-year Lipitor cholesterol drug, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co with its Plavix blood clot prevention drug, and Eli Lilly & Co with its Zyprexa schizophrenia treatment.
Some analysts worry that U.S. sales of prescription drugs could suffer even more if President Obama and the Democratic-led Congress decides to require drugmakers to negotiate prices of their branded products.
The United States is currently the only major industrialized nation without price regulations for prescription drugs, making the country the world’s most profitable market for medicines.
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