Vaccine worth €50m sold in Romania in 2009

2010-03-09

Sales of vaccines in Romania reached almost €50m in 2009, including €35.7m sold via pharmacy retail and €11.8m bought by the Health Ministry, according to Ziarul Financiar.
Based on IMS Health data, retail pharmacy sales of vaccine in 2009 grew by 6.3% in euro and declined by 17.8% in terms of volume to 2.6 million units. Retail sales of vaccines account for only 1.7% of the Romanian pharmaceutical market.
Vaccine prices rose in 2009. For example, Centrofarm, the largest Romanian pharmacy chain, reported that the average vaccine price rose by 47% last year, because of the increasing share of expensive imported vaccines as a proportion of total sales.
Last year, the market was extensively affected by the vaccination policy of the Health Ministry, which bought 7.2 million doses of vaccine, including 5 million doses of A(H1N1) vaccine supplied by the Romanian manufacturer Institutul Cantacuzino. In addition to the A(H1N1) vaccine, the Ministry also bought the BCG vaccine (for tuberculosis) and vaccines against hepatitis B.
According to Sanofi Pasteur, the Romanian retail vaccine market stagnated in 2009 because of the economic crisis and a decline in the purchasing power of the population.