Anzag Reports Improved Drug Market Conditions

Major German pharmaceutical wholesale group Anzag has reported something of a reversion to the drug market conditions preceding the introduction of the Bonn government's health reform legislation. The Frankfurt company has posted net profits in the year to August 1995 of 32.2 million Deutschemarks ($22.3 million), some 10.1 million marks up on the rump trading year of 1994.

Peter Haac, Anzag chairman, has said that with overall growth of 7.2%, the company feels the good old days are back again, illustrating - he added - that the effects of state interventions such as the health reform are of short duration. Moreover, he said, the drug sector was no longer at the center of efforts by Health Minister Horst Seehofer to contain costs.

Anzag sales in the reporting period rose 5.8% in western Germany to 4.1 billion marks, while sales in the eastern German states expanded by 11.3%. The company has a share of the German drug wholesale market - worth 28 billion marks - of around 16% and is third in the national league table.