2024 marked the 60th anniversary of the Association of the European Self-Care Industry (AESGP), which has spent the last six decades providing patients with the sustainable, safe and effective self-care products to help them self-manage a wide variety of ailments and everyday health issues.
According to the AESGP’s 2024 annual report, the sector manages over 4,000 non-prescription medicines, based on more than 200 different active pharmaceutical ingredients and their combinations. At least thirteen switches took place in ten different European countries in 2024.
Last year, 4.7 billion packs of non-prescription medicines were sold for the self-management of 1.2 billion minor health issues per year (e.g. allergies, gastrointestinal disorders, cough and cold, etc).
The self-care industry comprised in 2024 more than 2,000 companies operating in Europe, half of which were small- and medium-sized enterprises. The sector includes also producers of food supplements (1.3 billion of packs of minerals and vitamins sold in 2024) and self-care medical devices (2.2 billion packs purchased in Europe every year). The AESGP report mentions overall savings of €34 billion resulting from the use of non-prescription medicines.