Portugal Debt Crisis Strangling Pharma Sector Growth

Wednesday 10 April 2013, Amsterdam

The Portuguese pharmaceutical market has struggled in recent years, and new government policiesrestraining the profits of the generics industry are likely to aggravate these existing problems, states the latest report by research and consulting.

In May 2011 Portugal’s government agreed a reform program with the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restore market confidence and raise potential growth, receiving a financial rescue package of US$108 billion (€78 billion). However, this came with an obligation to enforce healthcare budget cuts as part of austerity measures, and these efforts threaten to damage the country’s pharma industry, says the new report

The government introduced a pricing policy in 2012 guaranteeing that any new generic drug entering the market is priced at least 50% lower than its branded equivalent, aiming to increase the use of generics as a cost-containment tool and reduce public healthcare expenses. This is hampering the generic market, with an estimated value of US$670.6m for 2012 dropping significantly from  US$745.1m in 2011.

Despite this, the generics market still has huge potential for development, as the patent cliff provides opportunities for generic manufacturers. Blockbuster drugs such as Amgen’s Neupogen, AstraZeneca’s Nexium, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Abilify, and Pfizer’s Celebrex are all due to lose their patents in the next two years, opening the market to generic versions of these products.

Portugal’s financial reforms also bring other challenges to the pharma market. In 2013, the government plans to raise domestic revenue through implementing higher corporate and personal taxes, which will act as a burden on pharmaceutical companies operating in Portugal, including major multinational companies Novartis, Merck, Pfizer, Roche, AstraZeneca, and Abbott; and major domestic pharmaceutical companies Bial, Bluepharma and Hovione.

The Portuguese government’s inability to clear many outstanding debts has also led to difficulties with outstanding payments to pharmaceutical companies standing at US$1.5 billion in 2012, leading major players such as Roche to start cutting drug supplies to public hospitals.

Portugal’s pharmaceutical market is projected to show modest growth in the near future, from a value of US$5.1 billion (€3.9 billion) in 2012 to approximately US$5.6 billion (€4.4 billion) by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 1.2%. The medical device market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1%from US$1.5 billion in 2012 to US$2 billion in 2020.