It's a perfect storm for drug spending this year: fewer pharmaceutical patents are expiring in 2014, and Obamacare is making drugs more affordable to more people. The upshot: nearly 12 percent increase in drug spending by year-end in the United States.
That's what a report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics says. Worldwide, drug sales spiked this year, recording an increase in absolute growth from $40 billion in 2013 to $70 billion. The extra driver of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act put the U.S. in the driver's seat of the uptick.
"Among the major markets, the United States remains the largest, representing over one-third of the global total, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5-8 percent through 2018," the report said. "This is significantly higher than the 3.6 percent growth over the past five years."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
