Brazil is becoming a hot market for big pharma again. After nearly 30 years since Big Pharm exited en masse due to high inflation, tough price controls and very weak intellectual property rights, Brazil has become popular again. Patent rules and regulatory requirements for generic drugs have become stricter. Brazil has a rising middle class that is rapidly growing and also an increasing number of pharmacies to meet demand. Thanks to the rising middle class, the country is now the eighth largest drug market by sales in the world.
Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis and Pfizer have all either wholly purchased or purchased very large stakes in Brazilian pharma companies in the last few years. AstraZeneca and GSK have also returned to Brazil with segmented pricing strategies to allow them to compete in generic and in more innovative drug categories targeting the middle class.
Nilton Paletta, president for Latin America of IMS, said:
Brazil is becoming one of the largest and most attractive pharmaceutical markets. It’s the second-biggest emerging market after China, with double-digit growth that will continue for the next few years.
No wonder then that the big global pharmaceutical companies believe it to be a market they can’t afford to ignore. See Seeking Alpha.
Posted by Bruce Lehr November 21st 2010.
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