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Australia Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q2 2011
Business Monitor International, Feb 2011, Pages: 87
The Australia Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, pharmaceutical associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Australia's pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.
In view of the stronger-than-expected employment situation in Australia, together with the ongoing strength in the commodity market, we are now pencilling in 2.4% overall real GDP growth in 2011, up from 1.6% previously. However, this strength will not necessarily translate into support for the country’s pharmaceutical market, which is facing challenges on a number of fronts, not least the government’s attempt to constrain expenditure on healthcare and medicines.
Combined with factors such as patent expirations, the above situation is forecast to translate into a contraction of pharmaceutical market values in Australia. Calculated at AUD10.03bn (US$9.12bn) in 2010, we expect the market to post a local currency compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -0.75% in the 2010-2015 period, before recovering to 0.43% over the ten-year forecast period to 2020. Currency fluctuations will, however, mean that the US dollar value of the country’s pharmaceutical market will post negative growth rates during both periods, making Australia a challenging proposition. Australia, therefore, slipped down our regional Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Business Environment Ratings (BERs) ratings for the current quarter and is now ranked third, below Japan and South Korea.
In the meantime, multinationals are trying to adapt to the changing operating environment. For example, Pfizer Australia will distribute its medicines directly to community pharmacies from January 31 2011. The company said the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) reforms and upcoming patent expiries – particularly for its blockbuster high cholesterol drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) – were the primary reasons behind the operational change. Unlike a traditional pharmaceutical distributor, DHL – which has been appointed the sole logistics provider to Pfizer's medicines distribution – cannot set discount levels and simply receives a fee for delivering the medicines.
In other company news, Swiss drugmaker Roche was recently fined US$200,000 each for two different cases under the Medicines Australia code of conduct. In one case, the drugmaker offered funding for a nurse's position at a health service related to the number of patients treated with its Hepatitis C drug Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a). In the other case, the company made false claims about its renal anaemia treatment Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta). The decision to fine Roche indicates the importance of enforcing strict regulatory and adherence to advertising requirements.
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