2009 U.S. Drug Sales Topped $300 Billion
Coupons and generic pharmaceutical sales drove American drug sales up 5.1-percent in 2009, helping industry sales over the $300 billion mark despite the recessed economy.
The number of prescriptions also rose, with generic medication accounting for three of every four prescriptions filled, according to statistics provided by the data tracking firm IMS Health.
"Despite the severity of the economic environment, the demand for prescription pharmaceuticals remained strong," Murray Aitken, senior vice president of IMS Healthcare Insight, told Reuters reporter Bill Berkot on Thursday. "Patients continued their therapies, perhaps more than many had expected, and as a result we saw an increase in spending, taking the market to $300 billion."
In terms of revenue, the most lucrative class of medication was antipsychotics, which brought in $14.6 billion in sales. Second were acid reflux drugs, which saw a five percent spike in prescriptions and secured $13.6 billion in sales.
In terms of the number of prescriptions, cholesterol lowering medicines and other lipid regulators rose five percent, to 212 million prescriptions nationwide. However, these drugs finished third in terms of revenue due to the availability of generics.
Generic medication accounted for $74 billion in U.S. sales, while sales for name-brand drugs dropped by 7.6-percent in 2009. That trend is expected to continue, according to Berkot.
"The shift toward generics is likely to accelerate by 2012," he reports, "when several major products, including the world’s two biggest-selling medicines–the cholesterol fighter Lipitor and the blood clot preventer Plavix–face competition from cheap generics."
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