Japan Pharma Market 1995

By P Reed Maurer

Final figures are not yet available, but the ethical pharmaceutical market in Japan will most likely exceed $5.5 billion at ex-manufacturers' sales level in 1995. The Japanese market is two-thirds the size of that of the USA and on a par with all the markets in western Europe combined.

Although there is a propensity in the west to forecast a demise of the Japanese market, value in dollar terms continues to grow at 5%, with volume growth in excess of 9%. To be sure, growth rates in the 1990s have slowed from the torrid pace of previous decades, but the market now accounts for almost one fourth of the worldwide sales of pharmaceuticals.