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The pharmaceutical industry in Britain has an impressive reputation
based on a long history of achievement. On average, it takes around
10 to 12 years and £550 million to develop a new medicine,
with no guarantee that a medicine will go on to be a commercial
success. The international renown of the sector relies on a solid
science base, dedicated researchers and notable business strengths
that match the very best in the world. Major new advances in treatment
developed in British laboratories offer entirely new opportunities
to treat disease and ill health and benefit patients all over the
world This section of our website gives you a selected range of
statistics about the pharmaceutical industry, both in the United
Kingdom and overseas.
The following charts and statistics give an overview of the pharmaceutical
industry in the UK and in the wider world. As more recent information
becomes available, the data will be revised and updated.
Section 1 - A global industry
1. World trade in pharmaceuticals, 2004
2. Annual medicine usage per person, 2004
3. Spend on medicines as a percentage of GDP in various countries, 2004
4. Top world pharmaceutical corporations, 2006
5. Sales share of the world's top 100 prescription medicines 2003
6. Market share of new medicines in various countries 2006
7. Generic market share by value for selected countries 2004
8. UK pharmaceutical & Retail Price Indices
Section 2 - Pharmaceuticals and the UK economy
9. UK Pharmaceutical trade
10. Trade surplus rankings for 15 major UK industry sectors
11. Employment in the UK pharmaceutical industry
12. Value added by sector, 2005
13. Leading UK pharmaceutical corporations' market share, 2004
14. Top UK pharmaceutical products: 2006
Section 3 - Research and Development
15. Pharmaceutical R&D expenditure in the UK
16. R&D as a percentage of sales in some UK manufacturing industry sectors
Section 4 - Medicines and the NHS
17. NHS expenditure per person in the UK
18. Community prescribing in the UK
19. Daily Expenditure 2004/05
20. Cost of prescriptions dispensed in various disease areas, UK, 1995-2005 £ millions
21. Number of prescriptions dispensed in various disease areas, UK, 1995-2005 per million prescriptions
22. Estimated savings due to reduced use of hospital beds since 1957
The following sections give more details about the pharmaceutical
industry, but some of the most important facts about its contributions
to the health and wealth of the people of the United Kingdom are
set out below.
Medicines for a healthy future
Value for money
- The pharmaceutical industry provides the nation's medicines
to the NHS at a daily cost of just 56 pence per person
- Medicines account for only about 11 per cent of total NHS costs,
despite a constant growth every year in the number of prescriptions
issued
- Modern medicines offer real value for money - in real terms, medicines prices are around 21 per cent lower than 10 years ago.
- The annual cost of medicines prescribed by GPs in Britain is
about £205 per person - much less than the cost in France,
Germany, Japan or the USA
- Sales to the NHS in 2005 were £10.4 billion. ABPI member
companies supply around 80 per cent of the medicines prescribed
on the NHS
The economics of success
- The industry invested £3.2 billion in UK research and
development in 2004- nearly £9 million every day
- Pharmaceutical companies carry out nearly a quarter of all industrial
research and development in the UK, and spend more than 20 per
cent of their gross output on R&D
- Nearly 20 per cent of the world's top medicines were discovered
and developed in Britain
- Twelve out the top 25 medicines prescribed by GPs on the NHS
are British
- Pharmaceutical industry exports in 2005 were £12.2 billion,
creating a trade surplus of £3.4 billion
- The industry employs around 73,000 people and generates another
250,000 jobs in related industries
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