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Belgium Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q3 2011
Business Monitor International, June 2011, Pages: 87
Belgium 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 Belgium's pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.
Belgium’s pharmaceutical market is small in absolute size, but compares favourably with other Western European markets in terms of per-capita expenditure. High value patented medicines dominate the market and account for around three-quarters of sales by value. Belgium is home to a number of medium-sized pharmaceutical companies such as UCB and Omega Pharma as well as an expanding biotech scene.
Headline Expenditure Projections
- Pharmaceuticals: EUR4.65bn (US$6.17bn) in 2010 to EUR4.69bn (US$6.70bn) in 2011; +0.8% in local currency terms and +8.7% in US dollar terms. Forecast down slightly from Q211 due to analyst modification.
- Healthcare: EUR35.57bn (US$47.19bn) in 2010 to EUR36.53bn (US$52.24bn) in 2011; +2.7% in local currency terms and +10.7% in US dollar terms. Forecast unchanged from Q211.
- Medical devices: EUR7.70bn (US$10.21bn) in 2010 to EUR8.24bn (US$11.78bn) in 2011; +6.9% in local currency terms and +15.3% in US dollar terms. Forecast unchanged from Q211.
Business Environment Rating: Belgium received a Business Environment Rating (BER) of 64.5 out of 100 in Q311, fractionally above the average for the Western Europe region and placing it fifth of the 10 markets surveyed by BMI in the Western Europe region. Although growth in medicine sales is low, the country represents a significant market in absolute terms. Furthermore, per-capita spending is high, there is a sizeable pensionable population and regulations are transparent.
Key Trends & Developments
- It was announced that that Merck & Co was to end its partnership with Belgium’s Galapagos in February 2011. The companies had signed agreements in 2008 and 2009 covering metabolic, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. Merck put the decision down to a strategic change in its early discovery programmes.
- In April 2011, Belgian cancer diagnosis and therapy company Ion Beam Applications (IBA) acquired a 25.2% stake in German radiopharmaceuticals specialist PET Net from its owner Medical Imaging Research Holding. PET Net is the operator of two commercial sites in Erlangen and Regensburg.
BMI Economic View: Like other European economies, Belgium faces fiscal risks, which will limit public expenditure in the coming years. In the healthcare sector, this could manifest itself on the provider side through more limited investment in healthcare infrastructure and on the purchaser side through increasingly scrupulous cost-effectiveness assessments of new drugs.
BMI Political View: Belgium has been without a permanent government since the 2010 federal elections, despite several attempts by parties to form a coalition. Differences between the two major parties on socioeconomic issues serve to create political uncertainty, with the New Flemish Alliance considered more conservative than the left-leaning Socialist Party. However, BMI believes that this situation poses minimal risk to the healthcare industry. Although a geographically separate healthcare system has been mooted, it remains highly unlikely.
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