Higher U.S. Sales Sends World Drug Market Up 6% in Last 52 Wks
Bloomberg News
June 22, 1998, 10:50 a.m. PT
Higher U.S. Sales Sends World Drug Market Up 6% in Last 52 Wks
London, June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Surging sales of sedatives,
antidepressants and tranquilizers pushed retail drug sales up 11
percent in the year to March in the U.S., the world's fastest-
growing major drug market, market research firm IMS Health said.
Prescription drug sales through pharmacies in North America,
the largest drug market, grew to $72.8 billion, with the U.S.
making up $68.6 billion of those sales, IMS said in a report.
The U.S. proved to be the key driver in the $179 billion
drug industry for the year. The global industry grew 6 percent in
the year to March 1998 in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Argentina,
Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, the largest markets.
U.S. growth was fueled largely by central nervous system
drugs, now the largest U.S. class at $14.5 billion in 1997 sales.
Of these, antidepressants like Eli Lilly & Co.'s Prozac and
SmithKline Beecham Plc's Paxil surged 20 percent to $5 billion,
while sedatives and tranquilizers grew 28 percent to $2.5
billion, IMS said.
Growth in the five largest European markets -- the U.K.,
France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- grew 5 percent to $49.4
billion. Recession-shocked Japan, the world's third-largest drug
market, was alone of the major markets in posting a sales revenue
drop of 5 percent, to $40.3 billion.
In Japan and Europe, drug prices are typically controlled by
central government regulators, which routinely cut drug
reimbursement levels to save costs. In the U.S., drug prices are
subject to private negotiations in a decentralized market.
IMS also published a listing of the world's top 20 drug
companies sales to both pharmacies and hospitals in 1997.
Starting with the largest, they are:
1. Merck & Co.
2. Glaxo Wellcome Plc
3. Novartis AG
4. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
5. Johnson & Johnson Co.
6. Pfizer Inc.
7. American Home Products Corp.
8. SmithKline Beecham Plc
9. Hoechst AG
10. Eli Lilly & Co.
11. Roche Holding AG
12. Abbott Laboratories
13. Schering-Plough Corp.
14. Bayer AG
15. Astra AS
16. Warner-Lambert Co.
17. Rhone-Poulenc SA
18. Pharmacia & Upjohn Co.
19. Boehringer Ingelheim AG
20. Takeda Chemical Co. Ltd.
--Dane Hamilton in the London newsroom (44-171) 330-7727/mpk |
