Pharmaceutical market continues decline in 2010 by 10%

Date: 24-11-2009



Pharmaceutical market continues decline in 2010 by 10%In the last nine months the pharmaceutical market registered a drop of 10% in volume and 3% as value in euro. In 2010 it will record a decline of 5-10% on the background of insufficient financing from the state budget and of the devaluation of the national currency, specialists of Cegedim research company say.

In the second quarter, the market recovered from the ground lost over April-June, recoding a drop of 10% in volume and 5% for value to 473.8 million euro compared to the similar period of 2008, the study shows.For distribution channels pharmacies knew a drop of slae sof 9.1%, the equivalent of 418.6 million euro, while in hospital 17.4% less products were sold in the third quarter compared to 2008.

The OTC segment (medicines sold without prescription) was the most affected by the crisis of the health system, recording a drop of 17.5% to 66 million euro. Medicines sold with prescriptions had a better evolution with a drop of only 4.7% to 352.5 million euro.“The evolution of the pharmaceutical market in the third quarter was influenced by a better functioning of the supply chain, but it is not clear if in the October-December period the situation can become normal”, said Petru Craciun, the director of Cegedim Romania, who added that against the same period of 2008, 2009 will certainly be worse.

Results registered by the pharmaceutical market in the last three months of the year are defining for 2010, the Cegedim official considers. Decline will continue on the background of the devaluation of the national currency against euro. The impact on the market will be negative in the conditions in which 80% of medicines are imported. In this context the market could lose up to 10% of value.
The classification of the big players in the pharmaceutical market remains stable compared to the previous quarters. Hoffmann la Roche continues to be the leader with a market share of 8,6% and sales of 671 million lei in the last 12 months, followed by Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis with shares of 6-7%. Over half of the market evaluated at 1.9 billion euro is covered by the first 10 companies.