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Greece Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q3 2008Published by: Business Monitor International Published: Sep. 15, 2008 - 74 Pages Table of Contents
AbstractGreece represents one of the least developed pharmaceutical markets within the established EuropeanUnion (EU) members. However, when judged against Emerging Europe, Greece continues to occupy poleposition in BMI‘s Business Environment Ranking for Q308, ahead of the other 16 markets surveyed inthe region. Some of the market’s positives include the potential for the growth of its over-the-counter(OTC) market following the 2006 removal of such products from the reimbursement list. On the otherhand, pharmaceutical prices are continuously revised downward, with BMI actually forecasting marketcontraction through 2012, to US$5.41bn, down from some US$5.68bn in 2007.There are other worrying signs. For example, a recent report by Eurostat warned that the ageing and lessmobile population across the EU may have a marked disadvantage for the Bloc’s ability to innovate inscience and technology. Specifically, Greece had the lowest job-to-job mobility within the EU, alongsideHungary and Slovenia. Given that such mobility is beneficial to the overall economy, through the meansof knowledge transfer, Greece is seen as being disadvantaged by this fact, which results from a lessflexible labour market. Similarly, in April 2008, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that UKpharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) must lift self-imposed restrictions on supplyingwholesalers in Greece, which had been put in place to prevent parallel exports. The court stated that therestrictions constituted an abuse of dominant market position, while also potentially breaching EUantitrust rules. Apart from being set to negatively impact financial performance of the company inquestion, the ruling also represents a significant blow to opponents of parallel trade. Multinationals arealready sidelining Greece when choosing where to launch innovative medicines, with the latestdevelopment further discouraging their presence in the country. On the other hand, the medical devices sector continues to offer substantial opportunities for foreignplayers. The medical devices industry in Greece is worth an estimated US$850mn, with importssupplying the vast majority of the market, especially on the high-tech end of the scale. In fact, in the2002-2006 period, imports rose by almost 100% in terms of value. Domestic producers of medicaldevices are mostly engaged in the manufacture of low-value but high-quantity products, such as medicalsupplies. Get Full Details About This Report >> |
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