Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - September 2006 - (Page 5)

Competition Time New rulings and continued tightening of health budgets in Europe are creating further opportunities for generics companies to grab a larger slice of the pharma pie. Busting the blockbuster he health budgets of governments and other Sarah Houlton T providers are coming under ever-increasing Once a medicine's patent has expired, it is fair game is a contributing editor. pressure. One obvious way of cutting costs is by for generic competition. Big-selling blockbuster drugs limiting the amount spent on medicines. A recent that are relatively easy to manufacture will be rapidly study published by the Katholieke University of Leuven challenged by generics as soon as their patent in Belgium concluded that if the 10 most commonly protection expires. Consequently, their price spirals used branded medicines were replaced by generic correspondingly downwards as the pressure of alternatives, government drug expenditure in 11 major market forces hit home. The prices of niche products, markets could be cut by between 21 and 48%.1 which are sold in lower volumes and are more complicated to make, are less likely to plummet so far According to IMS Health, the total market for or so fast because they are less attractive targets for generics in the five biggest European markets the co m p e t i t i o n . UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain has been The opportunities for generics manufacturers and outpacing total market growth since 2002, when sales sellers are constantly opening up. A number of top- of generics grew by 12% annually, compared with the selling drugs are due to lose their protection in the overall market growth of 8%. By last year, this gap had next 5 years, but in the absence of a pan-European widened, with generic sales rising by 10%, against a patent, the precise date varies from country to total pharma market growth of just 5%. This trend of countr y. For example, the patent on sanofi-aventis's escalating growth for generics is set to continue, with cancer treatment Taxotere docetaxel runs out in annual growth from 2004 http://www.pharmexeceurope.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - September 2006

Contents
European Overview: Competition Time
Growth Strategies: Survival of the Fittest
Pharma Defence Strategies: Fighting Fire with Fire
Biogenerics: The Evolution of Biosimilars
Branding and Marketing: What's in a Name?
Branding and Marketing: A New World Order
Legal: Balancing Acts
Q&A: Champion of Industry
Q&A: Courting Consolidation
Market Outlook: Top Five Trends

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - September 2006

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