The pharmacy market closes the first half of 2016 at 12.7 billion euros, down 1.7% from the same period last year. This is what the latest Ims Health surveys report, based on a sample of 8,000 pharmacies distributed throughout the country. The contraction, according to the data, must be imputed
Furthermore, extremely heterogeneous trends are recorded within the commercial sector. For example, supplements continue to fly, growing by 7.1% in the six-month period mainly thanks to vitamins, gynecological-urological products and products for the circulatory system. The hygiene and personal care segment also performed well, rising both in terms of volumes (+2%) and values (+2.5%). On the other hand, the beauty segment recorded a slight decrease (-0.6%), within which, however, face creams went against the trend (volumes +4.2%, values +4.5%) which kept the beauty products sub-segment stable female (0.1% values). Lastly, non-prescription drugs were down sharply, closing the half year at -4.1% due to lack of seasonality.