$27.0bn
$X.Xbn
76,999
4,191
$X.Xbn
The Pharmacies industry plays an important role in community primary health care. Retail pharmacies are the primary distribution points for prescription and scheduled over-the-counter medicines. Intensifying retail competition from internal and external operators, including discount pharmacies and supermarkets, has gradually changed the industry's operating landscape over the past decade. These competitive forces have increasingly polarised the industry into small, high-service pharmacies that offer allied preventative and primary healthcare services and large, high-volume, low-margin pharmacies that compete on price. Simultaneously, ongoing PBS price disclosure reforms have progressively cut the cost of PBS medicines, negatively affecting traditional industry revenue streams. In response, pharmacies have focused on increasing non-PBS and other retail revenue streams to become less reliant on dispensary revenue, supporting revenue growth.
Industry revenue has grown at a CAGR of 2.9 % over the past five years, to reach an estimated $27.0bn in 2023.
Market size is projected to grow over the next five years.
Company | Market Share (%)
2024 | Revenue ($m)
2024 |
---|---|---|
Sigma Healthcare | 3,800.0 | |
Chemist Warehouse | 2,950.0 | |
EBOS | 2,800.0 |
To view the market share and analysis for all 8 top companies in this industry, view purchase options.
Industry revenue is measured across several distinct product and services lines, including Prescription medicines, Scheduled non-prescription medicines and General retail. Prescription medicines is the largest segment of the Pharmacies in Australia.
Ongoing PBS reforms have led pharmacies to reduce their dependence on prescription medicine revenue
The industry includes all community or retail pharmacies that sell prescription drugs and patent medicines to general consumers. Pharmacies source medicines either from pharmaceutical wholesalers or directly from upstream pharmaceutical manufacturers. Key pharmacy groups include independent community pharmacies, banner groups, friendly societies, buying groups and discount pharmacies.
Purchase this report to view all 8 major companies in this industry.
ANZSIC 4271 - Pharmacies in Australia
Get an indication of the industry's health through historical, current and forward-looking trends in the performance indicators that make or break businesses.
The pharmacy operating landscape has changed over the past decade in response to ongoing PBS reforms. The latest reforms involve the staged introduction of 60-day dispensing ...
Learn about an industry's products and services, markets and trends in international trade.
Pharmacies increasingly focus on front-of-store operations to counteract declining over-the-counter sales and ongoing downward pressures on dispensary remuneration. More comm...
Discover where business activity is most concentrated in an industry and the factors driving these trends to find opportunities and conduct regional benchmarking.
The geographic distribution of the Pharmacies industry reflects Australia's economic, social and demographic distribution. The three eastern seaboard states are home to over ...
Get data and insights on what's driving competition in an industry and the challenges industry operators and new entrants may face, with analysis built around Porter's Five Forces framework.
Regulatory controls that define the operating landscape for pharmacies also shape the competitive environment. Only community pharmacies and hospital pharmacies can dispense ...
Learn about the performance of the top companies in the industry.
Due to ownership regulations, the Pharmacies industry is defined by small, owner-operated firms. Individual pharmacists own over half of Australia's pharmacies, with most of ...
Understand the demographic, economic and regulatory factors that shape how businesses in an industry perform.
Volumes of medicines dispensed under the PBS impact pharmacy dispensary revenue. In 2022-23, community pharmacies dispensed over 226 million prescriptions under the PBS. The ...
View average costs for industry operators and compare financial data against an industry's financial benchmarks over time.
Cost structures for individual pharmacies vary depending on size, location and business model. For example, a pharmacy's cost structure depends on whether it operates in a sh...
Including values and annual change:
IBISWorld has been a leading provider of trusted industry research for over 50 years to the most successful companies worldwide. With offices in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and China, we are proud to have local teams of analysts that conduct research, data analysis and forecasting to produce data-driven industry reports.
Our analysts start with official, verified and publicly available sources of data to build the most accurate picture of each industry. Analysts then leverage their expertise and knowledge of the local markets to synthesize trends into digestible content for IBISWorld readers. Finally, each report is reviewed by one of IBISWorld’s editors, who provide quality assurance to ensure accuracy and readability.
IBISWorld relies on human-verified data and human-written analysis to compile each standard industry report. We do not use generative AI tools to write insights, although members can choose to leverage AI-based tools within the platform to generate additional analysis formats.
Each industry report incorporates data and research from government databases, industry-specific sources, industry contacts, and our own proprietary database of statistics and analysis to provide balanced, independent and accurate insights.
Key data sources in Australia include:
Analysts also use industry specific sources to complement catch-all sources, although their perspective may focus on a particular organization or representative body, rather than a clear overview of all industry operations. However, when balanced against other perspectives, industry-specific sources provide insights into industry trends.
These sources include:
Finally, IBISWorld’s global data scientists maintain a proprietary database of macroeconomic and demand drivers, which our analysts use to help inform industry data and trends. They also maintain a database of statistics and analysis on thousands of industries, which has been built over our more than 50-year history and offers comprehensive insights into long-term trends.
IBISWorld’s analysts and data scientists use the sources above to create forecasts for our proprietary datasets and industry statistics. Depending on the dataset, they may use regression analysis, multivariate analysis, time-series analysis or exponential smoothing techniques to project future data for the industry or driver. Additionally, analysts will leverage their local knowledge of industry operating and regulatory conditions to impart their best judgment on the forecast model.
IBISWorld prides itself on being a trusted, independent source of data, with over 50 years of experience building and maintaining rich datasets and forecasting tools. We are proud to be the keystone source of industry information for thousands of companies across the world.
Learn more about our methodology and data sourcing on the Help Center.
Unlock comprehensive answers and precise data upon purchase. View purchase options.
The market size of the Pharmacies industry in Australia is $27.0bn in 2024.
There are 4,191 businesses in the Pharmacies industry in Australia, which has grown at a CAGR of 1.0 % between 2018 and 2023.
The market size of the Pharmacies industry in Australia has been growing at a CAGR of 2.9 % between 2018 and 2023.
Over the next five years, the Pharmacies industry in Australia is expected to grow.
The biggest companies operating in the Pharmacies market in Australia are Sigma Healthcare, Chemist Warehouse and EBOS
General retail and Scheduled non-prescription medicines are part of the Pharmacies industry.
The company holding the most market share in Australia is Sigma Healthcare.
The level of competition is moderate and increasing in the Pharmacies industry in Australia.