The 20 largest generics players cumulate three quarters of sales, according to data provided by Terapia, quoting information from market research company Cegedim Romania.
The generic drugs market has followed an upward trend since early 2014, but the 10% advance is much lower than the market’s potential.
“Generic drugs rose 4-5% by volume and 10% by value. Because of the clawback tax and discounts, it is only expensive generic drugs that survive,” said Dragos Damian, Terapia Ranbaxy CEO.
The market grew faster in terms of value than of volume, which indicates an increase in the average price.
“The problem we see in pharmacies is the lack of access to drugs,” added Damian.
Ranbaxy, Sanofi and Antibiotice, the top three players on the generic drug market, each has a local production unit and overall their sales neared RON900 million in the first nine months of this year.
The biggest segment of the generic drug market is that of prescription drugs and Cefort, part of Antibiotice Iasi’s portfolio, leads on this segment. Omez ranks second and Algocalmin comes third. At present, Algocalmin is part of Sanofi’s portfolio.
On the other side, the category of OTC drugs is led by Nurofen. Next come Aspenter and Parasinus and the top three drugs have a cumulated market share of above 12%, namely sales of above RON150 million.
OTC drugs made the most dynamic segment of the market and in the first nine months of 2014 sales rose by 12%.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)