U.S. total medicine spending 2002-2021

In the United States, the total amount of money spent on medicines reached approximately 574 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. Spending increased each year between 2012 and 2021, rising by a total of 255 billion U.S. dollars over that period.

How are drugs categorized in the United States?

Sales of brand name drugs accounted for a 84 percent share of the money spent on medicines in the United States in 2021. Humira was the medicine that generated the most sales revenue until 2021, making over 20 billion U.S. dollars per year. Drugs can be categorized in a variety of different ways, but one common method is to group them by therapeutic use, i.e., by the type of condition they are used to treat. Antidiabetics continues to be one of the categories where the most money is spent, with the United States spending 74 billion U.S. dollars on drugs to treat diabetes in 2020.

What is Humira used for?

Humira is a drug used to reduce the signs and symptoms of a number of autoimmune diseases in adults, such as rheumatoid arthritis. The drug, manufactured by the company AbbVie, was the leading pharmaceutical product worldwide based on sales before the COVID-19 vaccines entered the market. Sales of Humira account for a disproportional large chunk of AbbVie’s total revenue. The prescription drug is given by an injection under the skin, and two kits of the Humira Pen (40 mg) cost an average of 4,480 U.S. dollars in the United States in 2017, which was far more expensive than other selected countries.