Metrics 2.0: Retail Pharmacy Drug Sales Grew 5% to $375B for the 12 Months to June 2006


North America posted a 5% sales growth at $202.04 billion in sales in the 12 months to June.	IMS Health, the global healthcare information company, reported a 5% growth in drug sales through retail pharmacies in the 13 key markets in the 12 month period from July 2005 through to June 2006, closing at US$375.28 billion. The best selling drug for the 12 months ending June 2006 was still Lipitor, worth over $11.53 billion, with a reduced growth at 4.2%. Nexium still has the largest growth at the top with 16. The five top drugs are 1. Lipitor, 2. Nexium, 3. Plavix, 4. Zocor, 5. Seretide. The top five corporations in the year to June 2006 are in order: 1. Pfizer, 2. GSK, 3. Norvartis, 4. Merck, 5. AstraZeneca.
Sales in the top five European markets showed a 4% constant exchange growth. Japan’s overall growth at constant exchange was 3%, with a market worth $57.70 billion in the 12 months to June 2006. By therapeutic category the key growth area was in the cytostatics categories, with sales growth at constant exchange of 13%. The single largest therapeutic sub category in dollar sales continues to be the hypolipidemia, class selling $29.65 billion with a growth of 7.6% in the 12 months to June 2006. The second biggest group is the anti-ulcerants, class at $22.85 billion with a 2.6% growth.

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