The unfinished aftershocks of COVID-19

The largest outpatient prescription market ever

The amount of prescription in the third quarter is 4.3011 trillion won

The market for outpatient prescription drugs was the largest ever.

 

This year, the prescription market has grown significantly due to the expansion of prescriptions such as cold medicine due to the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 confirmed patients.

 

The size of Expectant prescriptions used to relieve COVID-19 symptoms has more than doubled in a year.

 

According to UBIST, a pharmaceutical research institute, on the 25th, the total amount of outpatient prescriptions in the third quarter was 4.3011 trillion won, up 5.4% from the same period last year.

 

The third-quarter prescription amount is the largest ever.

 

It easily surpassed the previous new record of 4.22 trillion won recorded in the fourth quarter of last year.

 

The domestic prescription drug market has regained its previous year's upward trend this year after the spread of COVID-19.

 

Prescriptions in the first quarter were 4.1248 trillion won, up 6.5% from the previous year, and 5.7% from the previous year in the second quarter.

 

The prescription amount in the first and third quarters was 12.58 trillion won, up 5.9% from the same period last year.

 

In 2020, when COVID-19 began to spread, the size of outpatient prescriptions was 15.6365 trillion won, up 2.7% from the previous year.

 

Last year, the outpatient prescription performance was 16.1126 trillion won, up only 3.0% from the previous year.

 

In 2018 and 2019, the amount of prescriptions increased by 8.1% and 8.2%, respectively, compared to the previous year.

 

The growth rate has fallen to one-third for the second consecutive year since the spread of COVID-19, which means that the growth rate of the prescription drug market is about twice as high this year compared to the past two years.

 

The expansion of the prescription drug market this year is analyzed to be due to the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 confirmed patients.

 

Since the beginning of this year, there have been many COVID-19 confirmed cases, and prescriptions of antipyretic painkillers, cold medicines, and antibiotics used to relieve COVID-19 symptoms have increased significantly.

 

The supply of cold medicine and other medicines continues to be in short supply.

 

Recently, as tens of thousands of COVID-19 confirmed cases have occurred every day, the demand for COVID-19 symptom relief treatments is increasing.

 

The prescription of Expectant, which is widely used for treating cough and phlegm, a representative symptom of COVID-19, has increased significantly.

 

In the third quarter of last year, the amount of outpatient prescriptions was 70.5 billion won, up 112.5% from the same period last year.

 

In general, Jinhae Gosamje shows a pattern of increasing use in winter and then decreasing in summer when the number of cold patients increases.The amount of expectant prescriptions in the third quarter is 35.2% higher than 52.2 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year.

 

Recently, even though it is summer, there were more spectacular prescriptions than last winter.

 

The amount of expert prescriptions recorded KRW 91.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, but it began to decrease significantly in the second quarter of 2020, when COVID-19 began to spread in earnest.

 

In the second quarter of 2020, it fell 47.6% year-on-year to 40.8 billion won, and in the third and fourth quarters, it shrank 29.8% and 50.0% from the previous year, respectively.

 

The expectant prescription market fell to 32.2 billion won in the third quarter of last year, but then began to rebound in the fourth quarter of last year and continued to grow this year.

 

According to Expectant's prescription performance, it was 44.1 billion won in the third quarter, up 95.0% from the previous year.

 

The amount of expectant prescriptions recorded 54.5 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2019 but remained in the 20 billion won range from the first quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of last year.

 

It rose to around 30 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year and recovered to the level before the COVID-19 pandemic this year.

 

Antitussive compound drugs received 14.4 billion won in prescriptions in the third quarter, up 122.1% from the same period last year.

 

Antitussive complex drugs decreased from 20.3 billion won in prescriptions in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 9 billion won in the second quarter of 2020, when COVID-19 began to spread in earnest.

 

It exceeded 10 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year for the first time in seven quarters and has been on a steep rise this year.

 

The antitussive single system recorded 16.8 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2019 but plunged to 4.1 billion won in the third quarter of last year.

 

The prescription amount more than doubled to 14.6 billion won in the first quarter of last year and continued to grow in the second and third quarters.

 

In the third quarter of last year, the prescription amount was KRW 12.1 billion, up 192.7% from the previous year.