Expensive drugs push pharmaceutical market up by 17% in RON in Q1

The Romanian pharmaceutical market went beyond the half a billion euro threshold in the first quarter of this year, hitting 569m euros, up 22% (17.6% in RON) from the same period of 2009, according to Cegedim Romania data. The upward trend was expected, but it exceeded even the most upbeat estimates of players. The trend was mainly supported by expensive drugs promoted by producers and more attractive for sale against cheap products, a fact also revealed by the almost constant trend of the market in terms of volume. A second factor behind the upsurge was represented by price increase expectations, so that distributors and drugstores had piled up drug inventories since March. These drugs reached final consumers after April 1, a date after which drug prices went up by 6% on average. While on the segment of prescription drugs, companies’ strategies focused on expensive portfolios, on the OTC drugs market there was a mix between these and price hikes. After the first quarter, Cegedim raised its forecast for the entire year from stagnation to a 2.5% increase.