Estimating national drug consumption using data at different points in the pharmaceutical supply chain

Consumption of oral antibiotic formulations for young children according to the WHO Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) antibiotic groups: an analysis of sales data from 70 middle-income and high-income countries

“…Importantly, no information is available on individual prescriptions (indication or age of treated patient). 21 As not all wholesalers contribute in the represented countries, adjustments are made to estimate the likely total sales volume based on knowledge of the market share of participating wholesalers. 21 The exact data collection mechanism and method of adjustment for variable country-level coverage are not publicly available, which limits an assessment of likely data representativeness.…”

Progress towards antibiotic use targets in eight high-income countries

“…This commercial database tracks pharmaceutical sales by using national sales audits of manufacturers and wholesalers, through retail and non-retail channels. 20 , 21 IQVIA standardizes the data to ensure they are nationally representative and to allow for comparability across markets. Table 1 shows the data sources and coverage of the database for our sample.…”

“…For countries with < 100% coverage, IQVIA adjust according to a proprietary algorithm to estimate the probable total sales value based on the market share of the participating sources, such that the extract estimates 100% of consumption. Sources: IQVIA multinational integrated data analysis system (IQVIA Inc., Durham, USA) 20 and national audit data sources.…”

“…Sources: IQVIA multinational integrated data analysis system (IQVIA Inc., Durham, USA) 20 and national audit data sources.…”

Regional variations of private prescriptions for the non‐benzodiazepine hypnotics zolpidem and zopiclone in Germany

“…We concluded that Z‐drugs, especially zolpidem, are increasingly dispensed as private prescriptions over the last years. However, transactional data captured at the point as products move from wholesalers to pharmacies are only a proxy for drug sales 18. We were not able to identify the exact proportion prescribed for reimbursement by SHIs.…”