Stagnation in OTC drug growth

Abstract

Government healthcare reforms and the increasing desire of patients to treat themselves have led world experts to predict explosive growth of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. According to Eric Décosterd from Zyma SA, in Nyon, Switzerland, ‘some of these experts were even predicting that around the year 2000 the self-medication market would be almost as big as the prescription business’. It now appears that such predictions may be way off the mark. Delegates at the conference, ‘Continuing Pharmaceutical Growth in the Face of Ongoing US and European Healthcare Reforms’, organised by IIR Ltd, heard possible explanations for the turn of fortune for OTC pharmaceuticals. The conference was held in London, UK, in March.