British company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), leader of the Romanian pharmaceutical market, expects sales to go up 15% this year, due to new product launches.
Last year, the Romanian unit of GSK registered total sales worth about 140 million dollars (115 million euros), including the distribution unit of the company, Europharm Holdings, and a market share of 10.9%, in line with Cegedim data quoted by the company.
Without including the distribution activity, GSK posted results worth 87 million dollars, with Europharm production, a Romanian company acquired by the British giant, accounting for about 35%. "In the first quarter of this year, we logged turnover worth 40 million dollars, in line with development plans for the current year", said Alina Luiceanu, trade manager with GSK Romania.
The increase anticipated by the officials of the British company comes at a time when the pharmaceutical market is not likely to keep up last year''s over 30% growth pace, following the change in legislation on pharmaceutical subsidies.
"Consumption of pharmaceuticals will rise by about 15% this year, being influenced by the new subsidy granting system, as well as by the new lists of compensated and free drugs", thinks Luiceanu. Of GSK''s last year total sales, about 80% were pharmaceuticals destined to the ambulatory treatment. "The Romanian pharmaceutical market started to follow, to a certain extent, the trends witnessed on the Western markets, where special attention is given to the ambulatory treatment, as well as from the perspective of lower treatment costs, and the lower social impact", GSK manager also stated.
The increased weight of ambulatory treatments is a change as to the individual policy embraced by Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, which merged to create GSK in 2000.
According to the GSK official, the firm will continue to actively take part in the national programmes initiated by the Romanian authorities.
alexandru.cerchez@zf.ro
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