STAT Plus: Global spending on drugs may hit $1.1 trillion by 2024, but the rate of growth is forecast to slow
Global spending on prescription medicines is forecast to increase between 2% and 5% annually over the next five year and exceed $1.1 trillion overall by 2024, up from $955 million last year, thanks to increased overall use of treatments and costlier specialty therapies, according to a new report.
Despite the big numbers, the growth in spending is actually expected to be slower than during the previous five-year period, when the compounded growth rate was 4.2%. The slower rate at which spending is forecast to grow reflects pricing pressures and the loss of patent or marketing exclusivity for brand-name drugs, according to projections by the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science.
