By G. Sakkas
[email protected]
The market in Greece for non-prescription drugs remains stuck in the 230-million-euro range over the past few years, with the per capita expenditure, in fact, last among EU member-states, at 21.5 euros.
The very low expenditures in the country for non-prescription drugs is attributed to a lack of experience by the buying public in treatingminor health issues (the common cold, for instance) with over-the-counter medicines, as well as an overall decline in pharmaceutical consumption in the recession-plagued country.
The situation is in stark contrast to the phenomenon of an over-consumption of prescription drugs and a massive annual outlay in medicine that pre-crisis Greece was infamous for.
At present, not only has Greece retreated from the top spots in the global index of pharmaceutical consumption and expenditure, per capita and as a percentage of GDP, but is now ranked near the bottom, in terms of EU countries.
