Growth in US spending on medicines slows to 2.3% in 2010, says IMS

Spending on prescription medicines in the USA last year slowed to 2.3%, markedly lower than the 5.1% growth rate in 2009, according to a new study, titled The Use of Medicines in the United States: Review of 2010, from IMS Health.

It found that total dollars spent on medications in the USA reached $307.4 billion last year - or real per capita spending of $898, up $6 from 2009. The volume of prescription medicines consumed overall rose at historically low levels in 2010.

Fewer patients visited physicians and initiated new chronic therapy treatments