Friday, March 24, 2006

Drug Sales in Developing Nations Surge

Economic expansion in developing countries helped boost pharmaceutical sales in countries like China and Mexico to double-digit growth last year, outpacing sales in larger markets such as the U.S., Japan and Germany, according to a report released Tuesday.
IMS Health, which provides market information on the pharmaceutical industry, said that drug sales around the world rose 7 percent to $602 billion in 2005, but sales in China increased 20 percent to $9.3 billion and sales in Mexico rose 12 percent to $7.5 billion.
Many countries in the developing world are experiencing significant growth which is allowing them to finance health care improvements, including purchasing more drugs, said Murray Aitken, senior vice president of corporate strategy at IMS.
Sales in Latin America, for example, grew 18.5 percent to $24 billion in 2005 while revenue in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, and Africa together rose 11 percent to $46.4 billion.
Meanwhile, growth in the ten major markets _ including the United States, Canada, Japan and Germany _ rose 5.7 percent, compared to a 7.2 percent increase in 2004. Drug sales in the United States and Canada, which account for 47 percent of global pharmaceutical sales, grew 5.2 percent to $265.7 billion, a slowdown from the 8.5 percent advance in 2004.
Aitken said growth in the U.S. revenues was tempered by the loss of sales from Cox-2 pain relievers, a class of drugs which includes Merck & Co.'s Vioxx and Celebrex, and Bextra from Pfizer Inc. Merck & Co. removed Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after a study showed it doubled patients risk of heart attack and strokes after 18 months. Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex, a drug in the same class as Vioxx , was also linked to cardiovascular problems and its sales have swooned.
Aitken also noted that as health care costs become an increasing concern in the United States, insurers are pushing consumers to use generic drugs, which are cheaper.
Last year, 94 products exceeded revenues of $1 billion, with 17 new drugs joining the category known as blockbusters. Among the newcomers were two cholesterol lowering drugs, Crestor from AstraZeneca PLC and Vytorin, which is made by a joint venture between Merck and Schering-Plough Corp.
Five drugs lost blockbuster status including Vioxx and Bextra, which Pfizer removed from the market last year at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home