Sales of anti-viral medicines surged 67% in 2009

2010-02-22

Anti-viral medicines for internal use were the fastest-growing drug category in Poland in 2009, with sales up by 67% (in value terms), according to a report from the Countrywide Healthcare Information System (OSOZ). Next in line were immunostimulating drugs, with sales up by 50% in comparison with 2008. On the other hand, anabolic medicines registered the steepest decline (down by 22%), followed by vomiting medicines (down by 14%). Respiratory medicines made the greatest gain in terms of market share from 11.02% in 2008 to 11.61% in 2009.
The report shows that the value of the Polish pharmacy market reached PLN 26.1bn (€6.43bn) in 2009, an increase of 8.9% on the year before. Market growth was driven mainly by OTC medicines, whose sales jumped by nearly 14% to PLN 9.25bn (€2.29bn). Sales of prescription medicines also grew, but at a slower rate, with reimbursed sales up by 4.9% and full-paid prescriptions by 6.7%.