This issue brief examines trends related to market size measured via sales revenues and volume of prescription drug use between the U.S. and other countries between 2017 and 2023. Specifically, we compare the U.S. to the rest of the world (excluding the U.S.) and the other OECD countries (excluding the U.S.). We also present trends in the average drug price calculated as aggregate sales revenues per unit sold. Our analyses cover the aggregate pharmaceutical market as well as breakdowns by retail vs. non-retail drugs as well as by biologic vs. small-molecule drugs. Finally, we analyze the subset of drugs that constitute the top 50 highest revenue drugs in the United States. Throughout our analyses we find that a disproportionately large share of total world and OECD revenues comes from the U.S. and is growing through time, highlighting that the U.S. is dominant in terms of total market share.
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