Drug industry foresees 12% sales growth

LOCAL medicine makers and distributors expect sales to grow 12 percent this year despite the global financial crisis following the entry of more generics, an official said yesterday.

Their projection is much higher than the 4-percent growth seen by the multinationals, says Reiner Gloor, executive director of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines.

The market share of local medicine makers is also projected to rise this year—by 38 percent—and they’re expected to sustain and even surpass that share beyond 2010.

The combined growth projection for the pharmaceutical industry was 7 percent as of June this year. Last year the industry grew by 10.18 percent and was valued at P116 billion.

The pharmaceutical association represents local and foreign drug makers, distributors and retailers, and it says the drug companies’ resilience is due to the strong competition resulting from the expiry of drug patents. That allows local drug firms to make or import medicines that they previously could not.

“Market competition is evident with the strong growth of the local pharmaceutical industry,” Gloor said in a statement.

“This growth is driven by the entry of more generics due to the patent expiry of several products in the last two to three years.”

Gloor says the wide availability of generic medicines has empowered patients to choose the medicines suited for them and which they can afford, and doctors to prescribe them.

“Research-based pharmaceutical companies on the average have eight years to exclusively market these innovative drugs. But after this period, generic counterparts could already be produced and be made available,” Gloor said.

But he says his group believes that the proposed maximum retail prices for generics prescribed by law is not needed.

‘‘Its imposition is not necessary given the market competition and the wide availability of alternatives…’’ Gloor said.

He urges the government to continue strengthening the generics industry, but at the same time upholding intellectual property rights to give scientists and researchers an incentive to discover breakthrough medicines.–Elaine Ramos Alanguilan, Manila Standard Today