Spain's pharma spend grew 6.9% in 2008

The Spanish drug industry body, Farmaindustria, reports that, during  2008, each citizen was prescribed, on average, 19.3 prescriptions,  which represents 3.3% growth compared to 2007. In the 2005-2008 period,  the average prescription consumption per capita had risen 11.2%. Last  year, the increase of the average price of prescriptions was lower than  the Consumer Price Index. Drug spending in 2008 increased 6.9% to 11.96  billion euros ($15.24 billion), due to the larger demand for  prescriptions (80%) deriving from an increasing population and a  greater number of elderly patients.

Over January 2005 and December 2008, Spain's general economy CPI grew  13.5%, while the average cost per Rx only rose 2.9% and the medicines  subclass index included in the general CPI dropped 19%. This is  attributed to across-the-board price cuts ordered by the government  which came into force in March in 2005 and 2006 (4.2% and 2%,  respectively) and the drop in the average price of Rxs since the new  Reference Price System came into effect in 2007, later revised in 2008.