Retail scripts of vaccines, acute drugs decline sharply amid COVID-19 pandemic

It’s understandable that retail prescriptions of drugs have declined since COVID-19 hit the U.S., as patients refrain from visiting physicians. But still, some drugs are suffering terribly, while others appear to be holding steady.

Broadly speaking, total prescriptions for drugs for acute use have plummeted by 28% since February, Bernstein analysts noted after going through IQVIA data. In contrast, chronic disease therapies are doing well, with weekly scripts even growing 2% at the end of March as compared with early February.