Pharmacy networks sales grow 9.09% in September, says Abrafarma

Sales retail pharmaceutical companies grew up 9.09 percent in September this year compared with the same period in 2014, according to data from the Brazilian Association of Pharmacies and Drugstores (Abrafarma), which brings together the largest networks of Brazil. The pace of large companies exceeds the growth of 6.4% obtained by the market of pharmaceutical articles as a whole, according to the monthly survey, the Brazilian Institute of geography and statistics (IBGE)
In the first nine months of this year, sales of the sector accumulated R$ 26.374 billion in comparison with R$ 23.482 billion from the same period last year. With that, the accumulated from January to September, sales rose 12.31% compared to the same months of 2014.
Among the different products, those who had higher sales growth were the "no drugs" category, which includes cosmetics and hygiene items. This niche product has reached R$ 8.785 billion sale between January and September, 14.99% growth compared to the previous year.
The Abrafarma brings together the 28 largest networks of drugstores in the country, which rely on 5794 shops.