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Nov 19 (Reuters) - Global spending on drugs will surpass $1trillion next year and increase 3 to 6 percent annually over thenext five years as both developed and developing nations spendmore on medicine, according to a study released on Tuesday.
Spending on expensive new specialty drugs for cancer andother ailments will rise to between $230 billion and $240billion by 2017, up 38 percent from $171 billion last year, thereport from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, adivision of healthcare information company IMS Health, said.
IMS Health said that in the next five years, austeritymeasures would continue to affect drug spending growth rates indeveloped markets. Developed nations will have annual drugspending growth of 1 to 4 percent after contraction in 2012,while emerging economies will experience growth of 10 to 13percent.
Global drug spending was $965 billion in 2012 and isexpected to exceed $1.17 trillion in 2017.
In the United States, drug spending is expected to increasein 2014 because of healthcare reform after two years of decline,the report said. It also said the extent to which the healthcarereform law will affect drug spending was unclear.
The world's largest drugmakers include Novartis,Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Roche,Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline.
