World Pharmaceutical Sales Increase 5%

Drug sales in the world's top nine pharmaceutical markets were 5% higher for the first nine months of 1994 than in the equivalent period last year, according to the latest figures from IMS International.

The USA remained the biggest market by far, registering sales to September of $36.5 billion, followed by Japan at $16.1 billion and Germany (the biggest market in the seven European countries included in the data) at $9.97 billion.

Surprisingly, considering the amount of attention health care reform and managed care issues have received from the industry over the past year, the USA also showed the largest market growth over the period, rising 8%. Also showing an increase of 8% was the somewhat smaller market in the UK, advancing to $4.07 billion compared to $3.7 billion in the first nine months 1993.