Local drugs lose out to imports

Thus, if ten years ago, in the first half of 1999, the best-sold medicine was Acid acetilsalicilic, with 7.9 million sold units, this ranks fourth now, with 2.5 million sold units. However, Nurofen, which was not one of the best-selling drugs five years ago, now ranks sixth, with 2.2 million units, in spite of the fact that the main criterion of the best-sold medications, the low price, is not valid in this case.

“All products increased in terms of value in the past ten years, but in terms of volume, we distinguish three subgroups. The local OTCs [over-the-counter drugs], generally antipyretic analgesics, which were sold in large quantities (Algocalmin, Paracetamol, Acid acetilsalicilic, and Antinevralgic), registered a decline in volume, while the “new” OTCs, either imported (Nurofen, No-spa, Olynth, etc.), or local, more recent (Paracetamol Sinus, Aspenter), rose in volume. A third group is made up of local digestive drugs, such as Dicarbocalm, Colebil, Triferment, which maintained their sold volumes,” Petru Crăciun, General Manager of the Cegedim market research company, told Business Standard.

The best-sold OTC medication in the first six months of this year was Algocalmin, the star product of the Zentiva pharmaceutical company, with sales of 5.1 million units, down from 6.8 mln units ten years ago. In terms of value, the best-sold medicine in the first half of 2009 is Nurofen, with sales worth RON 25 million (some €5.8 mln), followed by Algocalmin, with sales of RON 22.6 mln (some €5.3 mln).

“The price still has a very important role in selling over-the-counter drugs, with the average price of the top 20 products, €1.35, lower than the average market price, of €2,” Craciun added.

Specialists expect the pharmaceutical market to decline 10 percent in volume and 3.9 percent in euro this year, due to the decline in prices of imported medications and because of budgetary constraints brought about by the economic crisis. The value of the local market amounted to €1.85 billion last year.

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