Global pharmaceutical sales rose 7% last year, well below the double-digit levels the industry enjoyed in the past, figures released here showed.

The slowdown reflects pressure on drugmakers from government price cuts, generic competition and a lack of new products.

Healthcare information firm IMS Health said the increase in sales in major markets was the same as in the 12 months to November 2002, but this was the lowest growth rate since February 1999.

Growth in the United States, the world's largest market for prescription medicines, was 11% last year -- still nearly double the average of 6% seen in major European markets. Japan grew only 1%.

Around the world, makers of pharmaceuticals are feeling the pinch as their research laboratories come up dry while sales of existing drugs are squeezed by budget cutbacks and pressure from copycats as patents on treatments expire.

IMS said several factors were at work in different markets, with low growth rates in Europe attributed to French price cuts and reimbursement changes in both France and Italy.
Last year was the worst in more than a decade for new drug approvals and there is little sign that the industry's drought of new products will end soon, since there has been a similar drop in the number of new drug applications.

IMS said the top five corporations in order of sales in the 12 months to November 2002 were Pfizer Inc, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Merck & Co Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Novartis AG, with Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor the best-selling individual product.