Chile's pharmaceuticals market offers long-term benefits to foreign drugmakers

The Chilean pharmaceutical market is the second smallest in the Latin American region of the reports coverage universe, trailed only by Peru, notes a new report added to the offering of Reach and Markets. Nevertheless, Chile offers considerable longer-term benefits to foreign companies, as the absolute size of its drug market is expected to grow as public health coverage expands.

Although the market is relatively well-developed compared with others in the region, many poorer people are yet to receive comprehensive health care coverage. In the meantime, the country's economic development is forecast to experience modest growth, with real gross domestic product (GDP) growth and fiscal expenditure expected to increase and provide a solid foundation for the further growth of healthcare and pharmaceutical expenditure.

The publisher calculates that pharmaceutical sales in Chile reached 634.82 billion Chilean pesos ($1.21 billion) in 2008. This represents impressive market growth of 9.51% in local currency terms and 9.81% in US dollar terms since 2007. However, the report's forecast for 2009 is more conservative. It calculates that the drug market will experience growth of 5.59%, reaching a value of 670.34 billion pesos in 2009. The report notes that, as a result of the weakening Chilean peso, 2009 drug market expenditure in US dollar terms will experience a -5.61% decline to $1.15 billion, before rising to $1.37 billion in 2010. It also attributes the decline in Chile's pharmaceutical expenditure growth in 2009 to the economic downturn and the resultant drop in the country's GDP growth. The publisher's Country Risk team forecasts GDP growth declining from 3.2% in 2008 to -1.2% in 2009.