Drugs Market in Brazil will Reach $41.3Bn in 2017 – with Fast Growth to 2024

Monday 6 January 2014, Amsterdam

A new report predicts the drugs market in Brazil will reach $41.3 billion in 2017. That forecast and others appear in Brazilian Pharmaceutical Market 2014-2024, published in November 2013.

The generics segment will remain the main contributor to Brazil’s pharmaceutical market. It’s likely to out-perform every other developing market except China over the next ten-years. The challenge, however, for the Brazilian government will be to retain its domestic generics industry as multinationals circle.

The report notes speculation for acquisition targets. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Brazil are heating up, with Valeant, Merck and Takeda among the companies investing their way in. Domestic pharma deals are also increasing, as consolidation continues apace in the wholesale and retail sectors.

Dr James Evans, a pharmaceutical industry analyst, said: “The Brazilian pharma market will overtake every other except the US, China and Japan by 2020, according to expectations. The question is what strategies will get big pharma companies the best shares of that market. Sanofi is the market leader, but it has faced challenges. Though the generics market might seem like the simplest opportunity for sales growth in Brazil, there are also opportunities in patented pharmaceuticals, including biological drugs (biologics). But companies have to negotiate technology transfer arrangements.

“Technology transfer is a flagship policy for the Brazilian government. It wants to expand the national pharma manufacturing base, increase expertise, and thus reduce the costs of importing medicines. This is increasingly a priority, because the government widens access to medicines. Pharma companies can get five years’ exclusivity, but in return they’ll have to sign up to transition their relevant technology over to Brazilian laboratories, reports indicate. The most important field for this kind of deal will be biologics (biological drugs). That’s what the government is interested in getting hold of, and we’ve seen in recent times the establishment of two conglomerates, BioNovis and Orygen, which are going to make biosimilars. At the moment Achê has biosimilars, but that field remains emergent in Brazil.

“Roche did great business in Brazil during 2012, with its anticancer monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) performing well. But in the medium term Brazil wants to produce mAbs for itself, and export them across Latin America. Helping the government achieve this is going to involve close working with Roche and other players in that market. The new report predicts foreign pharma companies won’t back away from negotiations, with Brazil likely to remain a priority market for many of the leading corporations.”

Brazilian Pharmaceutical Market 2014-2024 adds to a portfolio of studies on healthcare industries and markets. That new report covers products, financial results, prospects, discussions, opportunities and revenue forecasts to 2024. It explores trends, companies – domestic and multinational – outlooks and potential sales, giving quantitative and qualitative business analysis.