The US sales of ethical pharmaceuticals and insulins through retail and non-retail channels increased by 5.1 per cent and reached at $300.3 billion during the year ended December 2009 as compared with growth of 1.8 per cent in 2008. The IMS Health, the world's leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, pointed out that stronger demand for prescription drugs was despite macroeconomic conditions.

As per IMS Health report, dispensed prescription volume in retail channels grew at a 2.1 per cent pace, to $3.9 billion dispensed prescriptions, up from 1.0 per cent growth in 2008. Although the volume of new therapy starts in 17 major chronic disease areas declined by about 1 per cent, the volume of add-on therapy starts, switches and refills rose by nearly 2 per cent last year.

The growth in US is mainly due to factors like sustained pricing practices by pharmaceutical manufacturers, competing on the basis of clinical evidence and value; inventory management actions taken by retail pharmacies at the beginning of 2009 to bring stocking levels in line with market demand, greater use of specialty pharmaceuticals - a class of medications used to treat complex, chronic conditions - that now comprise 21 per cent of US market value and grew 7.5 per cent last year and the lower impact of patent expiries, as well as no significant product safety issues occurring during the year.

"In 2009, demand for pharmaceuticals proved stronger than in the prior two years, yet remained at historically low levels," said IMS's Murray Aitken, senior vice president, Healthcare Insight. "While the 32 innovative products launched last year brought important new treatment options to patients in a number of disease areas, including cancer, thrombosis and atrial fibrillation, they drove only a limited increase in drug spending. Access for the first time to lower-cost generic treatment options in the areas of epilepsy, migraine, and immune system disorders had a more moderate impact on market growth than generic launches in previous years. Stronger patient demand for prescription drugs throughout 2009, both for new therapy starts and refills, underscores the resilience of pharmacotherapies in today's healthcare equation."

In its latest analysis, IMS also reported that use of generic products, including branded generics, continued to rise last year and now represent 75 per cent of all dispensed prescriptions in the US, up from 57 per cent in 2004. The total number of generic prescriptions dispensed increased 5.9 per cent in 2009, while the number of branded prescriptions dispensed declined 7.6 percent. Said Aitken, "The greater availability of generic options, growing differentials in co-pays between brands and generics, and efforts by patients, insurers and employers to encourage appropriate use of lower-cost alternatives were all factors in the changing mix of medicines used in patient treatment last year."

Further, IMS identified the key trends among the major therapy areas. antipsychotics remained the top-selling class of medications in the US, with 2009 prescription sales of $14.6 billion, equal to the 2008 level, lipid regulators continued as the largest therapy class in the US by dispensed prescription volume, growing at a 5 per cent pace to $212 million prescriptions dispensed in 2009. Sales of lipid regulators declined 10 per cent last year to $13.1 billion, reflecting an ongoing shift toward lower-cost generic alternatives. Lipid regulators ranked 3 in overall sales in 2009.

Proton pump inhibitors replaced lipid regulators as the second-largest therapeutic class in sales last year. Proton pump inhibitors sales totalled $13.6 billion, a 2 per cent decline year over year, while dispensed prescription volume for this therapeutic class rose 5 per cent. Antidepressants became the fourth-largest class in 2009, up from its 5 ranking the prior year, with US prescription sales growth of 3 per cent to $9.9 billion. Sales of antineoplastic monoclonal antibodies, a leading oncology class that includes Avastin, Rituxan and Herceptin, grew at a 9 per cent pace in 2009 and ranked 6 in therapeutic class sales.