Cardiovascular drugs account for almost one-fifth of Czech pharmaceutical market

2010-02-16

Cardiovascular medicines account for the most substantial proportion, 18%, of 2008 drug consumption, in terms of value, according to a recently published report from the Czech Office for Healthcare Information and Statistics (UZIS). This ATC group was followed by antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents (13.6%), drugs for the central nervous system (12.8%) and those for metabolism and the alimentary tract (11.3%).
Spending on cardiovascular system medicines in 2008 came to CZK 11.98bn (€0.5bn), which constituted a slight, 0.4% reduction in comparison with 2007. The reduction in the volume of distributed packets was much more substantial, in excess of 13%. The average price of a packet in this group increased by 14.9% and is CZK 183.78 (€7). A similar trend was also apparent with regard to three other ATC groups which were prominent in terms of the consumption of medicines: drugs for the alimentary tract and metabolism, antineoplastics and nervous system drugs. Antineoplastics grew in value by 19%, but there was a 12.2% reduction in terms of volumes, in comparison with 2007. Similarly, there was a 7% increase with regard to alimentary and metabolism drugs in terms of value and a 6.3% reduction in terms of volume, whereas nervous system drugs improved by 7% in terms of value, with a 7.6% reduction in volumes.
The most substantial fall in terms of both volume and value occurred in the group of anti-parasitic products, with figures of 68.8% and 6% respectively. This was accompanied by the most substantial average price increase: from CZK 194.98 (€7.5) to CZK 260.83 (€10) – 33.8% – in comparison with 2007. This group of medicines, however, has a miniscule, 0.1% share as a proportion of overall drug consumption (in terms of value).



In terms of ATC subgroups the most popular medicines in terms of generated sales value were antineoplastic agents (L01), as in 2007. This group was followed by preparations acting on the renin-angiotensin system (C09). Analgesics (N02) led the field in terms of the number of distributed packets – just as they did over the past three years.