Vitamin product exceeds 100… Prescription drugㆍHospital medication remain on the downtrend
The consumer price index (CPI) for analgesics is rising sharply.
According to Statistics Korea, the CPI for pharmaceutical products came to 103.43 in March, up 0.32p from a year earlier and 0.55p than the end of last year (2015=100).
The price index for analgesics was 128.78, up 9.15p from a year ago. Compared to the end of last year, it rose 0.27p in 1Q alone and continued to rise.
Among pharmaceutical CPI, Analgesics was the only item that gained more than 5p from a year earlier.
Following analgesics, antitussive grew 3.56p, gastrointestinal medicine 2.03p, anti-inflammatory drug 1.12p, oriental medicine 1.06p, and oral disinfectant 1.029, and nearly half of the 13 pharmaceutical price indices rose more than 1p.
While vitamin product gained 0.96p, skin disease medication 0.76p, and cold medicine and probiotics 0.17p, hospital medication and prescription drug fell 0.50p and 0.55p.
Compared to the end of last year, vitamin product had the highest rise of 1.27p, antitussive and gastrointestinal medicine 0.60p, analgesics 0.55p, oral disinfectant 0.45p, oriental medicine and digestant 0.39p, anti-inflammatory drug 0.33p, and skin disease medication 0.04p.
On the other hand, prescription drug fell by 0.24p, hospital medication 0.22p, probiotics 0.14p, and cold medicine 0.09p.
Among pharmaceutical items as of March, the price index for antitussive was 134.02, exceeding 130 alone. This means that it has soared more than 30% since 2015.
The price index for antitussive has already exceeded 130 last year and has risen sharply, but the increase slowed slightly last year.
Nevertheless, the annual increase is above 3p, and it still maintains the sharpest rise after analgesics.
Following antitussive, analgesics nearly reached the 130-point level with 128.78, and probiotics and digestant exceeded 120 by 120.78 and 120.01.
Last year, the probiotics exceeded the 120-point level before the analgesics, but the rise of analgesics exceeded the probiotics in 2Q, and the gap between the two has widened to 8p recently.
Oriental medicine rose to 119.26 with a steady rise, oral disinfectant 115.55, gastrointestinal medicine 114.45, Skin disease medication 112.92, an anti-inflammatory drug, and cold medicine 111.51, up more than 10% from 2015.
Meanwhile, vitamin products, which stayed below 100 until the beginning of the year, rose more than 1p this year, surpassing the 100 mark with 100.76. This indicates that it has recovered to the 2015-level.
Prescription drug and hospital medication have fallen slightly this year, reaching 93.93 and 92.86, nearing the 90-level.
