Prescription Drug Spending Will Reach $1.3 Trillion – That’s Trillion – By 2018

What goes up…. keeps going up?

It appears that spending on prescription medicines will continue to defy the laws of gravity, according to a new report from IMS Health Institute for Informatics. Global spending is forecast to reach nearly $1.3 trillion by 2018, up nearly 30% from last year and the compounded annual growth rate will range from 4% to 7% during that time, compared with the 5.2% seen over the past five years.

The reason for the projected increase is an interesting convergence of familiar developments. The first is the ongoing introduction of expensive specialty medicines that are used to combat cancer and other hard-to-treat maladies. Although some treatments are targeted at smaller, specialized patient populations, many others are and will be – prescribed for much wider audiences.

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