Mediafax press agency has quoted the market research firm Cegedim Romania as saying that in 2009 the domestic medicine market slowed down its growth rate measured in the national currency, by 13.1 %, and amounted to 8.1 billion Lei. In 2008, the medicine sector saw a 17.7 % increase, that is up to 7.16 billion lei. In Euros, the sales of medicines in Romania last year went down by 1.7% , reaching 1.9 billion Euros, as compared to the reported 6.8 % growth in 2008. Cegedim representatives estimate that this year medicine sales expressed in Euros will keep dropping by 2-3%, after the 1.7% decrease in 2009.
Last year, the pharmaceutical sector saw a drop in sales by 0.1 % expressed in Euros up to 1.68 billion, while in the national currency it saw an increase of 15%, up to 7.12 billion lei. According to the therapy areas, cardiovascular medicines also ranked first in the chart, in 2009, being followed by the antineoplasical ones, and those for the digestive tract and metabolism. As for the pharmaceutical companies operating on the market, the French group Sanofi Aventis has been the leader since last year, following the takeover of the Czech group Zentiva’ branch in Romania. Sanofi’s market share reached 10.1%. Following in the chart is the Swiss group Roche.
Last year’s purchase on the foreign pharmaceutical market brought about a fresh series of changes in the local pharmaceutical chart. Taking over the company Wyeth, the American group Pfizer, the world’s largest medicine producer went three positions up coming third in the chart. Merck and Co took over Schering Plough, and that brought Merck among the world’s top ten producers, actually on the 7th position at the end of 2009, with a 4.4% market share. In 2008, Schering Plough had ranked 14th, while Merck and Co, had come on the 16th position. Another new player that has freshly emerged among the top 20 firms is the American group Abbott, whose turnover, together with that of the Belgian group Solvey’s pharmaceutical division, purchased late last year, placed the American group on the 10th position, with 2.7 % of the market share.
Also, LaborMed Pharma, held by the Advent International investment fund, also owning production facilities in Romania, in late July 2009 purchased the Ozone Laboratories parcel of shares, ranking 15th in the chart. As for the remaining part of the chart, GlaxoSmithKline, including the Europharm producer in Brasov is seeded 4th, the Swiss company Novartis, including the Sandoz division comes 5th, while Servier comes 6th. The Indian group Ranbaxy, owning the Terapia factory in Cluj-Napoca, and AstraZeneca, rank 8th and 9th respectively. Antibiotics Iasi, Bayer Healthcare, Eli Lilly, Menarini, Krka, Actavis-owning the Sindan factory in Bucharest, then Johnson& Johnson, Gedeon Richter and Reckitt Benckiser are on the 11th-20th position.
We should also note that, according to the daily paper “Ziarul Financiar,” the top ten local pharmaceutical producers had a joint turnover of 243 million Euros in 2009, accounting for only 12.7 % of the domestic market, whereas in 1999, for instance, the largest ten producers accounted for about half the local market. Ranking first in this respect is the Terapia factory in Cluj, owned by the Indian group Ranbaxy, with sales of 62 million Euros, down 9.5 % as against 2008. Second in the chart, with sales of close to 49 million Euros, comes Antibiotice Iasi, a company in which the Romanian state holds the majority stake. Actually, the Romanian government intends to set up a national pharmaceutical corporation, built around the Iasi-based Antibiotice, and to promote this corporation as an entity of national strategic importance. Prime Minister Emil Boc:
“In a first stage, this national pharmaceutical corporation will be set up, under a government resolution. The corporation will be set up by merging Unifarm into the Central Emergency Storage Office. In a subsequent stage, this corporation will take over the stock held by the state in Antibiotice Iasi. That will turn Antibiotice into the centrepiece of that national corporation, the one which will give it greater importance and strength in the Romanian market and abroad.”
The third-largest pharmaceutical producer in Romania, by turnover, is Zentiva Bucharest, now owned by Sanofi-Aventis, with sales of 47 million Euros, followed by LaborMed Pharma, owned by the Advent International investment fund, with a turnover of close to 26 million Euros.
Also among the ten largest pharmaceutical companies in Romania are Biofarm, from Bucharest, Actavis, which owns the former Sindan pharmaceutical factory in Bucharest, then Gedeon Richter, with production facilities in Targu Mures, and Europharm, based in Brasov and owned by the British group GlaxoSmithKline.
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2010-09-06
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