The 2007 U.S. drug sales and prescriptions data have been released. According to IMS Health, psych meds did quite well in the United States last year. Highlights:
- Of all drugs, Seroquel (quetiapine) generated the fifth most money in sales. Not bad for an antipsychotic, or broad spectrum psychotropic or whatever it is marketed as these days. $3.5 billion in U.S. sales alone in 2007. Maybe AstraZeneca's investments in key opinion leaders were excellent business decisions.
- Antipsychotics generated more money in sales than did antidepressants ($13.1 billion vs $11.9 billion). If nothing else, it helps to again nail down the official paradigm shift favoring the antipsychotics as treatments for everything under the sun.
- Worry not, because antidepressants are still the most prescribed class of medications. Antipsychotics just cost a lot more, hence their generation of higher sales numbers.