IntelliNews - Polish Pharmaceutical Report

Additional Information

The pharmaceutical market in Poland is expected to clearly exceed PLN 30.0bn (EUR 8bn) in 2011 in final prices. Analysts anticipate a modest growth of the market in nearest years and try to estimate the consequences of the implementation of the new Drug Reimbursement Act, thus clearing the way for a major overhaul of Poland’s reimbursement system effective from 2012. An earlier version of the Act also contained a tax on revenues from sales of reimbursed medicines, meant to support independent drug research. It was dropped amid strong opposition from the pharma industry. The sector avoided "the black scenario." According to the sector's companies, the possible losses connected with such proposals would reach even PLN 3bn a year. The sales dynamics of reimbursed medicines has been weak for a long time. Last year, the OTC segment lost its strong condition and will not regain it within next two or three years. Meanwhile, dermocosmetics appear as the most dynamic segment in the pharma industry. The Polish market will remain attractive mostly because of its size. But enterprises more and more often look for new opportunities on the foreign markets. Poland's biggest drug producer Polpharma purchased a Turkish company. Other firms start to cooperate with e.g. Chinese companies. Currently, we are dealing with the influx of young biotech companies on the Warsaw bourse'e unregulated market NewConnect. Time will tell whether their business plans bring market success and profits to investors. Some of them, though, e.g. Selvita, provide quite interesting potential.