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Bulgaria Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q3 2008Published by: Business Monitor International Published: Sep. 10, 2008 - 75 Pages Table of Contents
AbstractBMI’s revised Business Environment Rankings for Q308 once again finds Bulgaria in the joint secondposition, alongside the Czech Republic, but this time also alongside Latvia, out of the 17 regional marketssurveyed in CEE. Bulgaria’s recently attained EU membership and a favourable business climate haveresulted in the improvement in the country’s longer term pharmaceutical market outlook, which is alreadybeing recognised by foreign firms. Large European companies are already active in the market, havingacquired shares in local players, which are mainly engaged in the production of generic medicines.Generic drugs presently account for over a quarter of the market by value and will continue to gain sharesat the expense of the costlier, patented variety. In the first three months of 2008, Actavis Bulgarialaunched a number of new generics, including cardiovascular agents fosinopril and lisinopril, oncologydrugs irinotecan (generic version of Pfizer’s Camptosar) and bicalutamide, and antidepressant sertraline(generic version of Pfizer’s Zoloft). Domestic companies are also using their clout to expand regionally.To this end, in March 2008, Bulgarian drugmaker Sopharma announced that it is planning a regionalexpansion, as it attempts to bolster its bottom line. To facilitate the move, Sopharma has formed a jointventure with Polish Natur Produkt Zdrovit and is also on the verge of buying a pharmaceutical plant inSerbia. In fact, the government is already planning to liberalise the health insurance sector in the hope that privatesector involvement would increase efficiency and introduce competition, bringing down the cost ofpremiums. The cabinet is thought to be considering ending the monopoly of the NHIF, with a number ofmodels proposed. The result could be that the NHIF would be the only distributor for basic health carepackages, while private insurers would compete for the remaining coverage. While the changes have thepotential to bolster the growth of the pharmaceutical market, forecasts - which have recently been revisedupwards after the new IMS Health figures were released - will continue to reflect improved opportunitiesfor manufacturers of long-term and chronic treatments, an increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) andthe introduction of higher-quality and thus more expensive products as replacements for medicines notcompliant with EU standards. However, chronic funding shortages plaguing the healthcare sector will continue to hamper thegovernment’s attempt to modernise and improve services. Nevertheless, the new Health Minister -appointed following a recent cabinet reshuffle - is committed to allocating around 5% of GDP is neededfor healthcare. The Minister was quick to emphasise the importance of developing a national healthcarestrategy and the fact that serious structural changes would be implemented throughout every level of thesystem. Get Full Details About This Report >> |
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