Brazil - Why is Brazil the most attractive market in Latin America?

The market is stronger due to new regulatory measures, increasing drug consumption and sizeable opportunities in the generic sector.

Increasing regulatory compliance ...

Demand should increase as the country is emerging from the economic downturn much quicker than anticipated. Recent regulatory developments include the implementation of the National Drug Control System, published in November 2009; registration requirements for APIs, published in November 2009; and a new labelling & packaging regulation, published in September 2009. ANVISA is also working on a draft for the regulation of biologic copies; the aim is to encourage local production of these medicines.

Rising purchasing power, fuelling drug consumption ...

The pharmacy sector in dollar values registered a slow growth in 2009 but the outlook is positive, as the population’s purchasing power is increasing. Future OTC sales are expected to be affected by the new advertising regulation, enforced in June 2009, and the new dispensing practices, published in August 2009. One of the new dispensing measures was that OTC medicines could no longer be sold over the counter. This, however, was overturned by ABRAFARMA in October 2009.

Wave of acquisitions in the generic sector ...

Generics sales continue to grow at a higher rate than the overall pharmacy sector, and they are expected to represent 20% of the sector by volume in 2010. In September 2009, it was rumoured that the local generic producer, Neo Química, was being acquired by Pfizer, but instead it was grabbed by the leading OTC company Hypermarcas in December 2009. This was the second major acquisition in the generic sector in 2009, following sanofi-aventis’ acquisition of Medley.

Further reading - A detailed review of the Brazilian pharmaceutical market is available from Espicom: The Pharmaceutical Market: Brazil (published January 2010)