Self-Medication Relieves German Funds

The German drug industry association, the BPI, says that growing self-medication relieved the public-sector health funds of some 1 billion Deutschemarks ($676.5 million) of drug spending in 1995. German consumers purchased non-prescription drugs worth 8.5 billion marks ($5.75 billion) in all last year, up 10% on 1994.

Volume sales of self-medication products rose 6% to 7.2 billion marks in western Germany and 18% to 1.3 billion in the five eastern states. Self-medication accounted for 52% of a total non-prescription drug market of 16.4 billion marks.

The BPI notes that self-medication drug consumers have accounted for 17%-18% of total pharmacy sales for some years. The 88 companies in the BPI's self-medication division report that this proportion can be increased, but this will require the exemption of further drugs from the prescription-only category.