In China, the report estimates, drug spending will amount to about $121 a person in 2016, which is far less than the $892 a person expected to be spent in the United States. But given that two-thirds of the world’s population lives in those emerging markets, even modest increases can make a big difference.
Spending is expected to double in these markets in the next five years, growing by a projected range of $150 billion to $165 billion, the report found. By 2016, 30 percent of global spending on medicines will be in the emerging markets, compared with 20 percent in 2011.
“The efficient-market hypothesis may be the foremost piece of B.S. ever promulgated in any area of human knowledge!”