Roche: Big potential for oncology drugs

Roche Romania, leader of the Romanian pharmaceutical market, with brands such as Neorecormon and Pegasys in its portfolio – the drugs with the biggest sales on the Romanian market, believes the sales decline recorded by Neorecormon will be offset by oncology drugs. Last year, Neorecormon posted sales worth 36.4 million euros, i.e. 25% of Roche’s 141 million-euro sales in Romania in 2008, according to data from market research company Cegedim Romania. According to ZF calculations, the 27% price decline operated by the Ministry of Health for Neorecormon (a drug used to treat anemia of patients with kidney failure) could cause the value of sales to decline by over 9 million euros, if the number of units sold remains constant. At present, the price of this drug, fully deducted by the Ministry of Health, ranges from 276 to 551 euros. “We have only prescription drugs in our portfolio. Prices have gone down by 7-8% on average,” said Dan Zamonea, general manager of Roche Romania. He explains that as far as Roche’s portfolio is concerned, the biggest price cuts were operated for older drugs, whose patent had already expired. For the other drugs, the Roche group had a uniform pricing strategy for Europe, so prices considered by the Health Ministries of the other countries were similar. This is also the case of the oncology drugs portfolio. “The oncology drugs portfolio has a much bigger growth potential (compared with Neorecormon i.e.),” added Zamonea.