Middle Eastern pharmaceutical market gaining in importance

Recently, the countries of the Middle East have become increasingly important markets as a result of substantial investment in both the private and public sectors, introduction of mass health insurance and several moves to liberalize national economies, according to the Middle Eastern Pharmaceutical Market Outlook to 2014, a report just added to Research and Markets offering.

Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Kuwait are the major countries of the Middle East with a total population of around 213 million. Turkey, one of the key pharmerging markets of the world, is a strong proponent of liberal trade and investment policies. It has an open trading system, especially with countries in the European Union, with which it forged a customs union agreement in 1996. Among the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia is considered the most attractive health care market in the Gulf, which is mainly because of its rapidly growing population and enormous economic resources.

The Middle East pharmaceutical market is diverse, with a significant presence of leading global players alongside domestic pharmaceutical companies such as Ibrahim, Bilim and Deva. The market dynamics are further shaped by the presence of several leading suppliers of branded generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) such as Teva, Hikma, Ibrahim, etc. Although, Middle East countries were a late entrant to the biotechnology sector, countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel has made a dramatic progress in recent years, which was mainly due to several government initiatives. Moreover, several public-private partnerships also boosted the growth of pharmaceutical sector in the Middle East region, the report notes.

Key findings

' The Middle East pharmaceutical market was valued at $14.8 billion in 2008, registering a year-on-year sales growth of 12.6%, and is forecast to return at a CAGR of 8.1% between 2008 and 2014 to reach a total value of 23.5 billion in 2014. The general anti-infective market is expected to generate the highest sales of $3.9 billion in 2014, followed by alimentary canal and metabolic disorders at $3.7 billion.

' General anti-infectives, alimentary canal and metabolism and cardiovascular disorders remained as top selling therapeutic categories in the Middle East, registering 2008 sales of $2.6 billion, $2.3 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively.

' The leading brands in the Middle East pharmaceutical market had a predominance of respiratory and cardiovascular drugs. However, the top 10 brands constituted a very small fraction of the Middle East market, with other drugs making up 94.1% of the total market in 2008. GlaxoSmithKline's asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) drug Seretide (fluticasone/salmeterol) dominated the market with 2008 sales of $134 million, a strong growth of 21% over 2007.