Roche becomes pharma market leader

Sanofi Aventis sales amounted to RON 470 million (€122.5 mln), while GSK posted RON 462.9 million (€120.6 mln). “GSK dropped back [two] places, but increased its level of business. It is one of the companies that has opted to focus on profitability over total sales, and the ranking change is due to this approach,” Cegedim General Manager, Petru Craciun, told Business Standard. The producer changed its strategy in 2006, and stopped financing stocks in order to optimize costs, Craciun said. He added that changes in the ranking are not ruled out in the coming period and that GSK “could come back” on top. In the 12 months surveyed, the local pharmaceutical market rose 12.7 percent, above previous reports. Market growth in March 2007-March 2008 was 6.1 percent. In June 2007-June 2008, the market rose 8.4 percent. “The market is reviving. This can be explained by the fact that we have a market with major needs,” Craciun said. However, for the whole of 2007, market growth is not likely to exceed 7.9 percent. In Q3, the value of the pharma market was €465.1 mln, 22.6 percent higher than Q3 2007. Drug sales in October 2007-September 2008 totaled €1.7 billion. Retail growth (pharmacy sales) rose 16.6 percent, up to €1.53 bln, while hospital sales declined 6.9 percent, to €238.2 million. (D.B.)