World's drug bill will reach US$1.3t by 2018: study

New York

WORLDWIDE spending on medicines will reach almost US$1.3 trillion by 2018, as new treatments for hepatitis C and cancer come to market and as people around the globe use rising incomes to buy pharmaceuticals.

The new drugs, such as Gilead Sciences Inc's US$1,000-per-pill hepatitis C treatment, will help drive the increase in spending up 30 per cent from 2013 levels, according to a report published on Thursday by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, the research arm of IMS Health Holdings Inc, which tracks drug prescriptions and sells the data.