New data: homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products in Germany

BPI, the German Pharmaceutical Industry Association, has released the English version of ‘Pharma-Data 2016,’ the 46th edition profiling the pharmaceutical industry in Germany. New data on the sector for homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products in Germany show growth in sales of both these two categories of medicinal products, although a small decline in unit sales and prescriptions of homeopathic medicinal products.

The report provides a wealth of facts and background information on the German and international pharmaceutical market. It covers the structure of the industry; research, development and innovation in the sector; an update on medicine safety and pharmacovigilance; the role of the industry within the German healthcare sector; and an outline of the German medicines market, including the market for statutory health insurance medicines, the OTC market, the market for hospital medicines, and the number of medicinal products in Germany. This latter section includes data on sales of homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products.

Germany is the largest market for pharmaceuticals in Europe, and the fourth largest worldwide, with a turnover of €39 billion in 2015. It is the EU’s second largest market for homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products, after France.

Excluding the turnover with hospitals, total sales to the pharmacy market were €30 billion in 2015, representing an overall growth of 3.5% on 2014. Of these, sales of homeopathic medicines were valued at €297 million and of anthroposophic medicines at €62 million. Above average growth was shown in the turnover of both these sub-categories - homeopathic medicines at 4% and anthroposophic medicines at 4.2%. 48 million units of homeopathic medicines were sold in 2015 (down by 1.6% on the previous year) and 10.2 million units of anthroposophic medicines (increase of 6.2%).

Of the total 701 million prescriptions issued at the expense of statutory health insurance, 1,287,724 (0.2%) were for homeopathic medicines. The cost of these in pharmacy sales prices was €14m, only 0.04% of total expenditure, reflecting the lower average price of these products. Numbers of prescriptions for homeopathic medicines showed a 5% drop on the previous year. There were 760,857 statutory health insurance prescriptions for anthroposophic medicines, representing an increase of 2% and a turnover of €15.2m.

There are 669 pharmaceutical companies registered in Germany, 93% of which employ fewer than 500 staff, and 60% of which have fewer than 20 staff. More than 100 pharmaceutical companies in Germany produce homeopathic and anthroposophic medicines.