Spanish 1st Qtr 1994 Pharma Spending

In the first quarter of 1994 Spanish public spending on pharmaceuticals amounted to 159.4 billion pesetas ($1.2 billion), an increase of 7.9% on the like, year-earlier period and corresponding to 127.7 million prescriptions written, reports the Spanish Health Economics Office (OES).

The OES noted that the reduction in the rate of value-added tax had an effect on the monthly expenditure for December 1992 and January 1993 which disguised the real spending behaviour for these two months, and also reflects on the percentage changes for the first quarter of 1994.

Taking the real spending value for the first quarter of 1993, public pharmaceutical spending would have been 151.6 billion pesetas instead of the reported 147.7 billion. The increase in spending for the first quarter of 1994 in real terms is 5.1%.