US drug spending ‘boosts pharma industry’

The total sum the US spent on pharmaceutical drugs reached a record high last year, significantly boosting the industry, new figures reveal.

Data from the IMS Health Institute for Healthcare Informatics shows that spending on medication increased by 13 percent or $43.4 billion (29.2 billion pounds) over the course of 2014, meaning some $374 billion was spent on drugs in the country.

This was the first year that the Obama Act was in full force, which figures show encouraged an additional 15.7 million US residents to sign up for health insurance.

The dramatic rise in spending on drugs came as something of a surprise to industry officials, with executive director of the IMS Institute Murray Aitken explaining he does not expect to see such as increase again in the foreseeable future.

"We certainly expect to see growth in the market size and spending level in 2015, but not at the rate of growth that we're reporting for 2014. We know that the patent expiry impact will be larger in 2015 than it was last year," he commented.