This website is intended for healthcare professionals only.

Hospital Healthcare Europe
Hospital Pharmacy Europe     Newsletter          

Generics hit mainstream drug sales

Worldwide sales of drugs made by the major pharmaceutical companies are likely to grow by between just 4% and 6% next year, the lowest level 10 ten years, according to IMS Health.

It cites the global recession as a cause, as well as a boom in generic versions of popular treatments when billions of dollars worth of products lose patent protection.

Some of the fall-off will be countered by China, which will account for a fifth of all sales over the next five years, says IMS’s Healthcare Insight analysis division.

The company reports that sales in the world’s most populous country are increasing by 20% a year, and are likely to total £50 billion ($80bn) in 2013, putting it third behind the US and Japan. Six years ago it was tenth.

IMS forecasts that growth in the US will be about 5%, an improvement from last year. Worldwide sales are forecast to rise by 4% to 7% a year through 2013 to total £625 billion ($1 trillion).

Says spokesman Murray Aitken: “We are seeing the economic downturn influencing both patient behaviour and payer strategies. We have an unprecedented £85 billion ($137bn) worth of products losing patent protection, particularly in 2011 and 2012.”

Copyright Press Association 2009

IMS Health

x