The analysts say the state program for medicine provision to privileged population was just picking up the speed in 2005 and it explains the striking contrast between this first quarter and the first quarter of the past year.
Photo: Alexey Kudenko
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Drug Sales Up for State Account
Russia’s pharmaceutical market went through a retail boom in the first quarter. The sales climbed 40 percent over the period, which is the five-year peak in this industry. The analysts attribute the abrupt growth to the state program for additional provision of medicine to privileged population, to be more precise, to extension of the program’s share on the market.
Unlike the previous years, says the recently promulgated report of Pharmexpert, it was not the commercial sector that geared the medicine retail in the first quarter. Commercial sales gained just 15.5 percent on year, signalling the market engine was the state program for additional provision of medicine to privileged population.
Under the state program, the shipment of medicine reached $500 million in the first quarter (roughly a million packs), 130 percent up vs. the amount posted in January to March of the past year. The average price of the pack delivered via authorized drugstores rose from around $4 in early 2005 to around $8.7 today.
“With commercial segment and the segment of additional provision of medicine taken into account, the retail market of medicaments stepped up roughly 40 percent in the first quarter. The analysts haven’t registered such rates for more than five years,” said Nikolay Demidov, general director at Pharmexpert, predicting the annual growth in pharmaceutical retail of at least 30 percent.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 12, 2006
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