Factors impacting global pharma market growth in 2011

In 2011, the global pharmaceutical market, in dollar terms, benefitted significantly from positive currency effects. According to new data from health care advisory firm Decision Resources’ Pharmaview suite, global pharmaceutical sales grew year-over-year by a respectable 5.3% to reach $707 billion, compared with 3.6% year-over-year growth in 2010.

The relative weakness of the dollar in 2011 compared to 2010 played a large part in this growth, and many of the major drug companies, such as Pfizer, Abbott, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson all reported positive currency effects of between 2% and 4% in 2011.