Nearly 96 percent of U.S. pharmaceutical sales were brought to the market through pharmaceutical distributors in 2016, according to a new report published by the HDA Research Foundation, a healthcare supply chain research firm.
For the report, titled "HDA Factbook: The Facts, Figures and Trends in Healthcare," analysts surveyed HDA-member distributor companies with annual sales greater than $1 billion and used supplemental government data to find the trends in healthcare supply chain.
Here are five report insights.
1. The total number of U.S. pharmaceutical sales that went to the market through primary distributors increased to 95.7 percent in 2017, which is a 2 percent growth rate from 2016.
2. Of the total number of sales through pharmaceutical distributors, 98 percent were prescription drugs.
3. Primary pharmaceutical distributors handled, on average, 5,100 orders per day and had an order fill rate of 95.3 percent.
4. In 2016, distributors held 55,000 SKUs, or product identification numbers, in inventory.
5. Chain drug stores are the largest customers for distributors, representing 30 percent of all sales.