9.6% increase in Czech wholesaler sales to pharmacies in 2009

2010-01-27

In 2009 the value of drugs sold to pharmacies by wholesalers increased by 9.6% in comparison with the 2008 figure, to CZK 50.1bn (€1.93bn), but there was a 0.3% year-on-year reduction in the number of sold packets of medicines, to 293.2m, according to an IMS Health data. Medicines sold in Q4 were worth CZK 12.3bn (€472m) in drug manufacturer prices – a 6.6% year-on-year increase, and there was a 1.3% increase in comparison with Q3 2009. The number of packets sold by distributors to pharmacies in the last quarter of 2009 was 71.7m. This constitutes a 0.2% year-on-year reduction, but a 3.6% increase in comparison with the third quarter of 2009. However, according to the daily publication Aktualne, the value of medicines consumed could be much greater than that calculated by IMS Health, as its analysis does not include direct deliveries to pharmacies and hospitals by pharmaceutical companies holding a wholesale licence. Annual drug consumption figures calculated by the country’s medicines agency (SUKL) are, therefore, usually much higher, as they also take maximum prices into account. The SUKL has not yet published the data for Q4 and 2009 as a whole, but the paper estimates that the value of medicines consumed in Czech Republic calculated in this way could be CZK 79.50bn (€3bn).