How can I locate pharmaceutical sales or use data for individual drugs?

February 28, 2013 7:51 AM

I am hoping to locate present and historical sales or usage figures for various prescription drugs, and I am not sure where to start. I'm trying to use the data to get a sense of how many people were using a particular drug at different times; I just figured sales volume would be a good indication. For me, rough numbers would be fine. Paying for the data may be an option (especially if it is not too expensive), but I was hoping to find some good free resources. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Market share data for different drugs in a particular class would be similarly useful, especially to the extent that I can also find overall sales or use volume for the overall drug class.
posted by dredge to society & culture (1 answer total)

There is a ton of stuff available on IMS - mostly around classes of drugs rather than individual therapies, but may be helpful. This (pdf) goes to individual product level, as does this top 200 list. The sources are legitimate.

If you need more than that, companies like SDI, McKesson's or regions with Drug Information Systems (many are not mature yet - I worked on the first one in Canada and it's just now able to provide this info) can do this on a more micro level. Expect to pay for that kind of thing.
posted by Rodrigo Lamaitre at 8:02 AM on February 28