U.S. drug spending dropped last year. While that may be welcome news for healthcare budgets, it's not so good for branded drugmakers. It may not be so good for patients, either. According to an annual analysis of the U.S. drug market by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, nominal drug spending dropped by 1% in 2012 to $325.8 billion. It was the first-ever decline in that measure, said Michael Kleinrock, the institute's director of research development. Real, per-capita spending fell even more, by 3.5%. Story