Approximately one third of all prescriptions written by doctors in Estonia, in January 2010, were digital.
Geographic reference: Estonia
Year: 2010 (January)
Market size: 306,000
Source: “One Third of Prescriptions Written Digitally in Estonia,” February 2, 2010, available online here.
The market size presented here is an estimate of the dollars spent by the pharmaceutical industry on research and development in 2009. This is a thorny and complex subject—what costs are included in R&D and how do pharmaceutical companies decide what to spend on developing new drugs and to modify old ones. For anyone interested in the subject beyond this quick snapshot, we recommend a report titled “Research and Development in the Pharmaceutical Industry,” published in 2006 by the Congressional Budget Office, and available online here.
Geographic reference: World
Year: 2009
Market size: $45.8 billion
Source: “New Federal Research Center Will Help Develop Medicines,” The New York Times, January 23, 2011, page 1.
Original source: Industry estimate
The size of the market for drugs to treat allergies has fallen during the first decade of the 2000s. The likely reason for this decline in the value of sales is not a decline in the number of people suffering from allergies, rather it has to do with the fact that generic drugs have come onto the scene to compete with the leading name brand drugs. This was possible because the patents on several of those name brand drugs expired in the middle of the decade.
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2003 and 2007
Market size: $7.5 billion and $5.1 billion respectively
Source: Medical Marketing & Media, May 2008, page 64.
Original source: IMS Health
Just two decades ago antipsychotic drugs were a minor part of the overall pharmaceutical business. Today, according to The New York Times article from which this market size was taken, antipsychotics lead all other drug classes in term of revenue generated. One’s first thought upon reading this may be that we must be getting way more psychotic but it turns out that these strong drugs are now prescribed for a much broader range of ills.
The top-selling brand of this drug category is Seroquel, produced by AstraZeneca. Other leading brands include Abilify, Geoden, Leponex, Risperdal and Zyprexa. Some of these drug names may be familiar to you even though they are prescription drugs and even though you may never have used one. That has to do with direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC advertising) which was made legal in the United States in 1997. Since then, we have all become far more educated about brand name prescription drugs. Interestingly, only one other nation in the world (New Zealand) allows the direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: $14.6 billion
Source: The New York Times, October 3, 2010, page B1.
Data show the number of compounding pharmacies in the United States in 2010. Compounding pharmacists mix raw ingredients to prepare customized medications to meet the specific needs of patients. Between 1 and 5 percent of the population needs medications that are not commercially available. For example, compounding pharmacies can prepare gluten-free and lactose-free medications, specialized hormone therapy, or specialized doses of pain medication. Of the 400 compounding pharmacies in the United States, only 76 are nationally accredited by the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board.
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: 400
Source: Rebecca Jones, “Custom Cures,” Wayne State, Spring 2010, page 14. The publication is accessible online here.