Assessing The Worldwide Market For Generics

Increasing competition in the generic sector has made generic companies start to think about expanding their business into new areas, warns Generic Pharmaceuticals, a new report from FT Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Publishing. Whether these firms will come to have sufficient specialist expertise to produce and market drugs like erythropoietin remains to be seen. However, it says, with firms such as Apotex having a strong focus on biotechnology, anything is possible.

According to the FT report, the European Generics Association estimates that the current European Union market for generics is $6 billion, accounting for around 15% of the total pharmaceutical market by volume and 10% by value. The EGA forecasts that by the year 2000 generics could be worth just over $15.5 billion in the EU, compared with some $16 billion in the USA (see table below).

It notes that generic market figures can and do vary between estimates from various sources, depending on definitions. In the FT study, no over-the-counter products have been included and only products for which a prescription must be written are included. It adds that generics can be both branded or commodity markets. This varies by country. Branded generics require marketing and promotion direct to doctors, whereas commodity generics do not require a doctor-specific sales force. Branded generics are exemplified by Germany, Russia and India. The USA and the UK are examples of more commodity-type generic markets.