World Market "Will Continue To Grow"

Rising life expectancy and higher living standards in almost allcountries mean drug markets will continue growing for the foreseeable future, said Rolf Kramer, chairman of the German drugmaker, Asta Medica AG. He forecast annual world market growth of 5%-8%, based on current volume of 270 billion Deutschemarks ($16.58 billion).

He added that the bulk of German drug industry profits are increasingly being achieved abroad. Asta is focusing its current internationalization drive on Asia, in addition to the USA and Latin America.

Asta has set up a distribution subsidiary in Singapore and an office in Manila to cover China, Taiwan and Korea. It acquired Muro Pharmaceutical of the USA at the start of the 1996-97 (ending September 30) trading year, and new subsidiaries will be set up in Argentina and Mexico, in the wake of those in Brazil and Guatemala. In France, the drug developer Europeptides was bought in November.