This report analyzes global drug spending trends over 25 years, placing medicine expenditure within the broader context of total healthcare spending. It finds that drug spending has remained a relatively stable share of healthcare costs—averaging about 15%—despite major shifts in therapy areas and innovation. Growth has been driven by new specialty medicines while offset by patent expiries, generics, and biosimilars. Oncology, immunology, and diabetes now dominate spending, replacing older therapeutic classes. The report concludes that rising healthcare costs cannot be attributed to medicines alone and emphasizes the importance of contextual, system-level analysis.

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