“I estimate we could talk about EUR150 million exports in 2012, up 35% or 40% compared with 2011 and there are several reasons for this growth. First of all, there are the hostile conditions in Romania. In fact, most of the producers with industrial facilities in Romania, with an inflow to the country’s GDP (e.n. gross domestic product), to the health, exports sectors, have faced a deteriorated activity on the local market. Fortunately, there are legitimate exports, which compensate for. We had to find other sale markets,” Dragos Damian, general manager with Terapia Ranbaxy and president of the Association of Romanian Producers of Generic Drugs (APMGR), told Mediafax in an interview.
Another reason for exports growth is made of the opportunities on new emergent markets such as Africa as well as the countries in Central Asia and Brazil.
As for the activity on the local market, most of the local medical drugs producers forecast 10% higher revenues in 2013.
“The growth on the domestic market means the apparition of new products, as well as a more positive sentiment regarding the Government change and the fact payment are expected to reach a normal pace as of the second quarter, once with the enforcement of the new EU directive stating payment should be made at 60 days,” also said Damian.
The market grew in value but not in volume over the past five years, which could be explained by consumers using expensive drugs instead of cheaper ones with the same effect, he added.
According to Damian, the best solution to save money, up to RON2 billion or 20% of the costs with medical drugs, is to replace the expensive drugs with generic ones.
Around 1,500 types of cheap drugs are no longer traded on the producers couldn’t support the payment terms, the lowest EU price and the clawback tax, also said APMGR head.
Some of the companies owning medical drugs factories in Romania are Terapia-Ranbaxy, Antibiotice, Zentiva, Labormed, Biofarm, Gedeon-Richter, Sandoz and Europharm.