Polish pharmaceutical market: modest growth expected between 2011 and 2013 - April 2011

According to the latest PMR Publications’ report “Pharmaceutical and healthcare market in Poland 2011”, the pharmaceutical market in Poland will be worth PLN 30.9bn (€8bn) in 2011 in final prices, 4% more than a year earlier. The increase in OTC sales will exceed that of the disappointing year 2010, but this will not counterbalance the weak sales of reimbursed drugs. The sales of the latter might be at their most fruitful directly before the introduction of fixed margins and prices, which will take place, in accordance with the latest draft Reimbursement Act, on 1 January 2012.

In 2010 the Polish pharmaceutical market grew by just 2%, to PLN 29.7bn (€7.4bn), the lowest figure in years, according to PMR estimates. The slowdown is attributed in part to a high comparative base (a 9% year-on-year increase in 2009), as sales in 2009 were boosted by the early peak of the flu season and concerns about swine flu, which impeded the increase in early 2010. Between 2011 and 2013 we expect relatively modest sales on the overall pharmaceutical market.