World medicines market holds up well. - The global pharmaceutical market is expected to grow by 4-6% in 2010, according to IMS Health, which has revised its forecasts upwards since April. This relative optimism is driven by the strong short-term growth on the US market of around 5% this year and 4% next. By 2013, sales recorded by the sector are predicted to grow by 4-7% annually, with previous forecasts stating between 3% and 6%. The market value will expand to over $975 billion by 2013, virtually doubling in 10 years. The situation in the US is unlikely to be widespread, however: in countries where patients pay more for medicines from their own pocket, a slowdown has been noted. This is the case in Russia, Mexico and South Korea. Growth in those countries where the cost of medicines is largely reimbursed by the state, such as Germany, Japan and Spain, has, on the other hand, been affected to a much lesser extent. In future, the pharmaceutical industry is likely to be given a boost thanks to the emerging countries (China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, India, Turkey and South Korea) whose growth is expected to reach around 13% next year and could even go as high as 16% in following years. The Chinese market alone is forecast to continue to increase by more than 20% per year and to account for more than one fifth of the world medicines market by 2013. (I.L.)