PUERTO RICO'S DRUG MARKET AT LATIN AMERICAN CROSSROADS

Puerto Rico's per capita drug spending is roughly US$460, many times that of Latin American peers such as Mexico, but the country's overall epidemiological profile differs substantially from that of the US. Local sources report that in recent years the US territory's top-selling drug has been Amgen's Epogen, which was ranked far lower in the US.

Puerto Rico's drug sector has been traditionally separated into a giant export-driven manufacturing industry and a small domestic market, valued at some US$1.8bn in 2004. However, there are some anomalies in this context, in that while pricing is operated along US-style free market lines, the sector has been comparatively slower to embrace cost-cutting opportunities such as generics. This is a market feature shared with Mexico, which has also seen rates of diseases such as diabetes soar in recent years as Western dietary and lifestyle patterns have taken hold.