Pharmaceutical market: Week 20 snapshot

Pharmacy market remains flat in week 20 of 2023: minimal 1% growth in values and significant 4% contraction in volumes

It also remains flat in the 20th week of 2023, the week from May 15 to 21, the trend curve of the pharmacy market, which on a yearly basis remains stationary since the beginning of May around a growth of one percentage point in values to which corresponds in volumes a contraction of more than four points.

This is the picture that comes from the report with which Iqvia updates figures and trends in the channel to the first five months of the year: pharmacy totals a turnover of 10.13 billion euros, +1.2% in week 20, for a total of more than 966 million packs sold (-5.1%).

The ethical drug segment is the one that continues to stand out in terms of resilience: in the week, growth in values and volumes is 2% and 0.3% respectively, for a trend of 2.5% in values and 0.6% in volumes.

The free-sale area, on the other hand, marks a sharp decrease in the week with -7% in values and -13% in volumes, bringing the year-on-year progressive to -0.8 and -10.7%.

Among the shopping baskets, the setback of personal care, which had so far stood out for its dynamism, stands out: compared to a year ago, the week marks a -15.3% contraction in values and -14.7% in volumes, which lower the trend growth to 8 and 3.7% respectively (i.e., a loss of more than one point compared to the previous seven days).

Even more pronounced is the loss of dermocosmetics, which loses 19.8 and 23.3 percent in values and volumes during the week, hence a drop of more than two points in trend performance.

Also bad is the vitamins and dietary supplements group, which after about three months puts the minus sign back on the annual progressive in values, good instead is oral care, which shows positive trend growth in both values and volumes, the sub-segment of fatty acids-omega3 (+10.4% in values and +4.5% in volumes in trend growth).

Due to a cold and rainy late spring flu/flu and nasal solutions put up a “tailwind” in consumption in values and volumes.