2008-11-13 10:01:02 - United Arab Emirates Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q4 2008 - a new market research report on http://www.companiesandmarkets.com

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BMI estimates that the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) drug market expenditure was AED2.71bn (US$0.74bn) in 2007. Over the forecast period (2008-2012), we expect growth to average 8.8% year-onyear (y-o-y), with the market reaching a value of AED4.13bn (US$1.12bn) by the end of 2012.

Over the next five years, there are likely to be major structural changes in the way in which healthcare is provided in the UAE. Duabi and Abu Dhabi have already unveiled universal health insurance models during 2008, and the Ministry of Health is hoping to announce a system which includes the whole of the UAE in the near future.

In BMI’s updated Business Environment Rankings for the Middle East and Africa, the UAE remains top of the table by

 

 

some distance of 15 regional markets surveyed. Although its drug expenditure is notably lower than that of Saudi Arabia, the UAE drug market’s high growth potential and the stable regulatory and political environment offer a favourable business location. This view continues to be born out, with US-based Pfizer becoming the latest multinational drugmaker to choose the UAE as its regional headquarters.

Exchange rates have caused problems in the UAE’s import reliant drug market. In response to the weak dirham against the euro, the UAE´s Ministry of Health announced that the prices of medicines imported from eurozone countries will be increased, with effect from October 15. The price of drugs to treat chronic diseases will increase by 5.85% and the price of non-chronic disease medicines will increase by 21.4%; prices will be reviewed again in two years time. Import prices will continue to be calculated by considering the price of the drug in the country of origin and in comparable neighbouring countries, and the pricing calculation will also be reviewed every two years.

While most of the UAE’s pharmaceutical needs are supplied by imports, the country’s domestic pharmaceutical industy continues to expand its international footprint. Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (Julphar) is set to open a number of international plants. Manufacturing operations in Afghanistan are scheduled to begin in late 2008; plants in Sudan and Morocco should open in 2009; and plants in Yemen, Iran and Lebanon should open in 2010. Meanwhile, Globalpharma recently received good manufacturing practice (GMP) certification from South Africa’s Medicines Control Council (MCC).