1993 A Difficult Year For Spain's Farmaindustria

The Spanish pharmaceutical industry had a difficult year in 1993 with the crisis over pharmaceutical expenditure (Marketletters passim). However, Enrique Gonzalez Hervada, first vice president and director general of the Spanish pharmaceutical industry association, Farmaindustria, said in the association's 1993 annual report that without forgetting the difficulties, the drug industry is on the right path to enable it to develop further and reach an acceptable level of profitability that will allow for investment.

Total consumption of pharmaceuticals in Spain through pharmacies in 1993 amounted to 561.55 billion pesetas ($4.45 billion), an increase of 12.4% on the previous year. Of this total 86.4% was represented by prescription medicines.

A deceleration was noted last year in the rate of growth for both the general market, made up of prescription products, over-the-counter products and dietary products, and the prescription market. Between 1988 and 1991, the general medicines market grew at an average annual rate of 15.2%, and between 1991 and 1993 this growth rate had slipped to just 12%. The deceleration of prescription medicine sales growth was more acute. Growth between 1988 and 1991 was 15.7% and between 1991 and 1993 it was 11.2%.