UK pharmacy Rx sales fall behind Italy, Canada

The UK's retail pharmacy sales of prescription drugs have fallen behind both Canada and Italy, according to the latest figures from IMS Health. In the September issue of the Retail Drug Monitor, the health information firm reports that, for the 12 months ending July 2008, the UK's market fell back 1% to 17.0 billion. In the same period, Canada's pharmacy turnover for prescription medicines reached $17.2 billion, a yearly increase of 6%, while Italy inched up 1% to total $17.4 billion (see also page 14).

The UK performance is all the more disappointing given that the population of both the other nations is smaller than that of the UK, so per capita spending on drugs is disproportionate, especially in the case of Canada, which has only 33.3 million inhabitants versus 60.6 million in the UK and 59.6 million in Italy.

Currency fluctuations may cause the ranking of the three countries to rotate in coming months and also make it difficult to analyse one month's figures in isolation. However, the trends recorded by IMS Health in recent years on a monthly basis in the Retail Drug Monitor offer evidence of a longstanding decline in the UK (Marketletters passim), while most other countries have seen spending on drugs increase.