Consumers of pharmaceutical drugs in Italy by age 2020

In 2020, around 6.16 million Italian adults aged 75 years and older were habitual pharmaceutical drugs consumers, corresponding to 89 percent of inhabitants belonging to such age group in the country. In the same year, almost 23.9 million Italians consumed pharmaceutical drugs in the two days before the survey. This figure represents a contraction compared to 2019, when the number of habitual drugs consumers peaked at 25.9 million.

What kind of drugs were consumed the most?

In Italy, the most consumed active ingredient for pharmaceutical drugs was ramipril, a medication used to treat hypertension and heart failure, among other diseases. It comes with no surprise, then, that the therapeutic area grossing the highest revenue was of drugs treating cardiovascular conditions. When considering only OTC and non-prescription drugs, the most popular product in Italy was tachipirina, tablets used to treat fever and reduce pain.

A thriving industry

The pharmaceutical market in Italy is a healthy industry, which has been growing considerably in terms of production, value added, and investments in the last years. Many international companies generate a large part of their revenue in the country, mainly through the sales in pharmacies. All of this makes Italy the third leading pharmaceutical market in Europe, just behind Germany and France.