The following excerpt is from an April 29, 2010 article published by CompaniesAndMarkets.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
When taken as a whole, the pharmaceutical market of Central America is an attractive prospect for drugmakers. Combined sales of prescription drugs and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines are forecast to increase from US$2.35bn in 2009 to US$2.49bn in 2010. This equates to respectable 6.1% growth and makes Central America’s pharmaceutical market the sixth-largest in Latin America, behind Puerto Rico (US$2.71bn) and ahead of Colombia (US$2.24bn).
However, market access is challenging, mainly because the seven countries that comprise Central America lack regional harmonisation with respect to approvals, pricing and reimbursement. Our Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Business Environment Ratings reveals that Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize should not be priorities for drugmakers looking to penetrate Latin America. Individually, the Central America countries are secondary or even tertiary emerging markets for pharmaceutical firms.
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Central America has limited domestic manufacturing and is therefore dependent on pharmaceutical imports. The region’s negative trade balance is forecast to increase from -US$1.21bn in 2009 to – US$2.05bn in 2014. Imports are generally from the US, Western Europe and Mexico.
An under-developed healthcare sector is the main constraint on Central America’s clinical trials sector. Between 2006 and 2009, a total of 222 clinical studies were conducted in the region. To put this in context, neighbouring Mexico hosted 181 clinical trials in 2009 alone…
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