Drug Stores still dominant vendors of US Prescription Drugs.

Despite the rise of mail order as a retail channel for prescription medications, U.S. drug stores are still the predominant vendors of prescription drugs in the United States, according to consumer research data from Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI).

41.9% of all U.S. adults report they filled a prescription in the last 30 days. Among these adults, 70.8% report they purchased medications at a drug store over the past year, the MRI data show. The next biggest prescription drug channel is mail order, used by 17.4% of all adults who filled a prescription in the last 30 days.

Supermarkets are third at 12.5% of adults, followed by discount/department stores (6.3%) and Internet/online (1.6%).

The mail order channel has shown the greatest growth, however, increasing 20% when comparing ’06 and ’04 MRI data. Moreover, the reach of mail order is significant among people aged 55-plus. Among all adults who used mail order as a
retail channel, nearly two-thirds (61.7%) were 55 or older. Conversely, only 6.8% of consumers using this channel were between the ages of 18-34.

“One of the reasons for mail order’s growth and popularity among older Americans may be that many health insurance plans encourage mail purchase for so-called ‘maintenance drugs’–medications prescribed for chronic, long-term conditions that are taken on a regular basis,” said Anne Marie Kelly, Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at MRI. “Retail drug stores provide faster prescription drug service, but mail order can represent a price savings for maintenance drug users. Hence this channel’s strength and relative weakness with younger Americans.”

To view additional charts CLICK above on ‘More Images’.