Top three in Romania's $2.8B drug market

The Romanian pharmaceuticals market, which generated revenues of around 1.8 billion euros ($2.84 billion) in 2007, is dominated by three generic drugmakers - Zentiva, Terapia Ranbaxy and Antibiotice, according to a report by market research firm Cegedim Dendrite.

Some 518 million pharmaceutical products were sold on the Romanian market last year and the Cegedim analysts found that the local subsidiary of the Czech firm Zentiva to be the top producer, with a 16.3% share of the market. The company makes two popular Romanian analgesics: Algocalmin, which sells around one million units per month and Antinevralgic with 600,000 units.

Terapia Ranbaxy, owned by India's Ranbaxy group, had a 10.1% of the market in 2007. In third place was Antibiotice Iasi, a state-owned producer, with 8.3%. Zentiva has been present on the Romanian market after it took over Romanian producer Sicomed Bucuresti, while Ranbaxy become the owner of Terapia Cluj. Antibiotice Iasi is still state-owned but in line for privatization.