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Prescription Sales top $100 Billion

For the first time in history, retail sales of prescription drugs will exceed $100 billion this year, according to projections released today by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

NACDS estimates 1998 year-end sales will reach $102.5 billion, an increase of 15 percent over the 1997 level of $89 billion. Chain community pharmacy, which includes traditional chain drug stores, mass merchant chain pharmacies and supermarket chain pharmacies, will account for 61 percent of these sales and will exceed $62 billion for the year.

Additionally, sales of over-the-counter medications in chain pharmacies will reach over $28 billion in 1998, an increase of more than 10 percent over the $26 billion in OTC sales in 1997.

NACDS also announced projected increases in the total number of prescriptions expected to be dispensed by retail pharmacies for 1998 will reach nearly 2.8 billion prescriptions, representing an increase of six percent from the 2.6 billion prescriptions in 1997. Of this total, chain pharmacies will dispense over 60 percent.

Looking to the future, NACDS projects that continuing growth in prescription volume will lead to nearly four billion prescriptions being dispensed in 2005 by community pharmacies. By 2005, the number of retail prescriptions dispensed is projected to be nearly double from 1992's total of 2.07 billion.

Factors contributing to the increase in prescription volume are increasing utilization of prescription drugs, especially by the elderly (those over 65), and the growth in managed care and its reliance on prescription drugs and pharmacy therapy for their enrollees. Currently, the elderly represent about 12 percent of the US Population and consume one-third percent of all prescriptions. The NACDS projections are based on actual store experience for the first six months of this year, as well as US Government sources of prescription sales data and data from IMS America, which tracks pharmaceutical industry trends.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) membership consists of 135 retail chain community pharmacy companies. Collectively, chain community pharmacy comprises the largest component of pharmacy practice with over 91,000 pharmacists. The chain community pharmacy industry is comprised of 19,000 traditional chain drug stores, 6,300 supermarket pharmacies and nearly 5,000 mass Merchant pharmacies. The NACDS membership base operates more than 30,000 retail community pharmacies with annual sales totaling over $135 billion including prescription drugs, over-the-counter (OTC) medications and health and beauty aids (HBA). Chain operated community retail pharmacies fill over 60% of the more than 2.7 billion prescriptions dispensed annually in the United States. Additionally, NACDS membership includes more than 1,300 suppliers of goods and services to chain community pharmacies.

Source: National Association of Chain Drug Stores