German Pharmacy Sales In 1995

German pharmacy sales rose 6% in 1995 to 35.3 billion Deutschemarks ($23.12 billion) in western Germany and 9.5% to 7.7 billion marks ($5.04 billion) in the eastern states. Last year, each member of a public-sector health insurance fund spent about 620 marks on pharmaceuticals, and each person of pension age about 1,128 marks.

However, says the pharmacists' federation, the ABDA, these sales have merely climbed back to 1992 levels. Two-thirds of western pharmacy sales were made with public-sector funds, compared with 85% in the eastern states. Drug spending used to account for 15%-16% of total fund spending before the health structure law, the GSG, which depressed drug sales down to 12.4% and 12.2% in 1993 and 1994 respectively. This proportion rose slightly last year, to 12.6%, but the ABDA says current budgeting means it will tend to stagnate in the next year or so.

Drug prices in 1995 rose only 0.2% over 1994 and are still below 1990 levels. Pharmacy margins were also 1% down on 1990 levels, at 28% of gross sales. The ABDA says margins are low compared to those of other sectors, including drugstores and perfumeries. At the same time, the gap between pharmacies with weak annual sales and those with strong sales widened in 1995, and most pharmacies (18,232 in western Germany and 2,887 in the eastern states) currently fail to reach average sales of 1.9 million marks a year.