Global spending on medicines 2029 forecast| ��ƽ��

Global spending on medicines in 2019, 2024, and a forecast for 2029 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Characteristic	Spending in billion U.S. dollars
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Release date

August 2025

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

As of May 2025

Supplementary notes

Values based on invoice spending; values do not include incremental spend for COVID-19 vaccines and therapies.

Citation formats

Global spending on medicine continues to grow. In 2024, approximately **** trillion U.S. dollars had been spent on medicines, up from *** trillion U.S. dollars in 2019. That number is expected to increase to nearly *** trillion by the year 2029. Spending on medicines has increased everywhere globally. However, the United States takes the lead in total medicines spending globally and is expected to remain the top country for medicines spending in the foreseeable future.

Global pharmaceutical industry

Globally, the pharmaceutical industry is a growing industry fueled by aging populations and new drugs to treat rare and specialty diseases. Regionally, the pharmaceutical industry generates most of its revenues in the North American and European markets. Within all markets globally, the top therapeutic class is oncology, followed by antidiabetics.

Top pharmaceutical companies

There are several large pharma companies that participate in the global pharmaceutical industry. As of 2025, U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was the top pharmaceutical company based on market capitalization, mostly driven by its strong product portfolio and promising R&D pipeline. The U.S. and China are responsible for the largest number of new pharmaceutical substances from 2020 to 2024.