Juliette Gagliardi
Junior Researcher
Non-prescription drugs in Italy - Statistics and facts
In 2022, revenues of Italian pharmacies generated by selling drugs amounted to 17 billion euros, including roughly 2.9 billion in non-prescription drugs, which accounted for 16.8 percent of the Italian pharmaceutical market. In the European market, a sub-group of non-prescription drugs are self-medication drugs: non-prescription drugs that are purchased spontaneously by the citizen and with access to communication to the public (for example through advertising). Sometimes they are also referred to as OTC (over-the-counter) drugs. Most of these drugs are sold in pharmacies, followed by parapharmacies, which have almost doubled in number in Italy over the past decade, and large-scale retail. In Italy, Tachipirina, used as a remedy against fever and moderate pain manifestations, led sales of OTC and non-prescription drugs, ranking first, third, and fourth, as sold in its different forms.
Price and expenditure
The average price of non-prescription drugs in Italy varies by sales channel. In 2022, pharmacies had the highest average price, with 10.2 euros per package, followed by parapharmacies and large-scale retail, with 9.2 and 7.7 euros per package, respectively. During the last two decades, the share of expenditure on non-prescription drugs over total pharmaceutical spending in Italy increased, shifting from 12.5 percent in 2001 to 16.8 percent in 2022. During 2022, the average expenditure on pharmaceuticals per inhabitant in Italy amounted to almost 289 euros, of which 48.7 euros were spent on non-prescription drugs. The Italian region with the highest per capita expenditure for non-prescription drugs was Aosta Valley, followed by Liguria and Tuscany. Generally, higher spending on non-prescription drugs was recorded in the northern regions of the country.Sales
In 2022, 78.5 percent of the sales volume of non-prescription drugs in Italy belonged to only three therapeutic areas: affections of the respiratory system, painkillers, and gastrointestinal drugs. Among medicines against affections of the respiratory system, drugs against colds generated the highest sales value, with 434.3 million euros, followed by antitussives and drugs against sore throat. General painkillers were the non-prescription analgesics with the highest sales value. When it came to non-prescription drugs to treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, laxatives had the highest sales value, followed by probiotics and anti-acid remedies.
