IQVIA Institute releases Understanding the Use of Medicines in the U.S. 2025 report
This year’s report examines how evolving standards of care, new therapies and benefit design are shaping patient access, out-of-pocket costs and overall medicine use.
IQVIA Institute has released its Understanding the Use of Medicines in the U.S. 2025 report.
Highlights from this year’s findings:
- Total medicine use reached 215 billion days of therapy in 2024, up 1.7% from 2023
- Medicare prescriptions have risen 25% over five years, nearly triple the growth in enrollment
- Over half of new prescriptions for novel medicines go unfilled due to coverage limits or cost
- Insulin out-of-pocket caps saved patients nearly $700 million in 2024
- U.S. net spending on medicines increased 11.4% to $487 billion, driven by novel therapies
- The use of prescription medicines in the United States — based on defined daily doses — has grown 14% in the last five years to more than 215 billion days of therapy in both retail and non-retail settings, though growth slowed to 1.7% in 2024.
- Retail drugs currently represent 83% of medicine use in the United States, with only 17% of use in non-retail settings, and non-retail growth surpassed retail growth in 2024.
- The use of prescription drugs dispensed from retail pharmacies has continued to grow at a rate of 3% annually, on average, over the last five years but growth slowed to 1.3% in 2024 bringing total market growth down.
[Read more: IQVIA 2025 report sizes up trends in new drug launches, other areas]
- Total net spending on medicines in 2029 is expected to increase by $116 billion compared to 2024, as volume growth drivers and adoption of innovation will be partly offset by drivers of lower prices, including patent expiries and the effects of legislation.
- Over the next five years, medicine spending will grow between 5–8% on a list price basis and 3–6% after discounts and rebates.
- Growth will be driven by adoption of newly launched innovative products, with an average of 50–55 new medicines launching per year over the next five years, including those in oncology or with specialty or orphan status, as well as some more traditional therapies in diabetes, obesity and neurology.
[Read more: IQVIA reports global market for medicines to rise to $1.9 trillion by 2027]
Read the full report to understand the trends reshaping medicine access and spending.