Panu: No changes in the top players ranking

Tudor Panu, chief of Schering-Plough Romanian operations, says emerging markets have become a priority for the US group.

The Romanian branch of the US drug maker derived sales of approximately around 25 million euros in 2005, and for the current year has budgeted sales of around 35 million euros. “The increase will come not only from the product portfolio expansion but also from the estimated market growth,” stated Tudor Panu who has been overseeing Schering-Plough operations in Romania since late February.

“Romania is one of the players whose importance in the region is increasing, and investors are spotting space for potential investment they wouldn”t have thought of five years ago,” said Panu. He believes an increasing number of companies are considering development in Romania due to the prospective growth of the domestic market. “A rising number of major corporations, as well as Asian companies, are starting to look here. The focus is strong on this region and companies overlooking this will only stand to lose,” he added. In the Central and Eastern Europe, Romania is one of the markets to have witnessed the fastest pace of growth in 2005, says Panu. “2006 will certainly witness the same upward market trend, but growth will be inferior to that of 2005,” said the Schering representative.

“In the next two years, growth will no longer be as sustained as before because the (domestic) market is mature enough,” added Panu.

Regarding major European players, he says they are already present here and this is why spectacular inroads by Europeans are quite unlikely. However, there might be some surprises from Asian companies. “Indians are very active in all segments of the market, they have financial power and know-how and this is why they are worth considering as potential investors in the Romanian market,” stated Panu. In terms of hierarchy of the pharmaceutical market, there will not be any major surprises. “The top ranking players will not change. It is the order that might change a little. I don”t see any dramatic changes, though. At present in Romania, companies are investing a lot of money, time and effort,” Panu also said.

According to the data released by the company, Schering-Plough currently accounts for 2.4% of the drugs market, and it plans to boost the share to 2.7%. The company”s best-selling products last year were drugs for treatment of chronic and viral hepatitis, allergies, as well as oncologic drugs.

For this year, the company also plans to enter a new area of the market, cholesterol-reducing drugs, with a product created jointly with Merck.

The pharmaceutical market last year surged by 18.1%, to 4.6bn RON (1.27bn euros), according to the Cegedim market research company. The British GlaxoSmithKline was leader of the market, with 9.1%, followed by the Swiss companies Hoffman La Roche, with 6.7% and Novartis with 6.4%.

Pharmaceutical market

* Last year surged by 18.1%, to 4.6bn RON (1.27bn euros), according to Cegedim

* Drug consumption through pharmacies reached highest growth, 25%, to 3.47bn RON (about 950m euros)

* Consumption through hospitals rose by 0.2%

* Figures are better than the initial expectation (15% growth) of players

* Cegedim estimates market growth in 2006 to be lower than in 2005