Brazil’s Pharmaceutical Industry Presentation

This section includes an external environmental analysis of Brazil’s pharmaceutical industry. The current pharmaceutical industry is still in its developing stage because the majority of pharmacological therapies made available to the public are either free or heavily subsidized by the government. The industry is also affected by a number of new regulations such as the National Drug Control System and Registration requirements for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in November 2009, and new labelling & packaging regulation published in September 2009. High taxes in the industry have been a major barrier as the country has a 35% tax rate on pharmaceutical products compared to a global average of 6.1%. Due to the fact that the government is highly support generic medicine than patent medicine, it has resulted 80% of the generics commercialized in Brazil being produced locally and limited access to innovative medicines. The Brazilian government also has great influential power on negotiating the flexibility on pricing strategies and purchasing policy with major companies, which in turn has led to a limited number of new launches occurring in the market.

The economic influence indicates that Brazilian pharmaceutical industry has potential for future growth. In 2009, the market has grown 7.2% and reached a value of $12 billion. Although the performance of the market is estimated to decelerate, in the next five years, the market value is still expected to grow and reach a value of $17 billion by the end of 2014. Currently, a positive figure suggests that the unemployment rate in Brazil is decreased from 7.9% in 2008 to 7.4% in 2009. However, highly unequally income distribution still exists. Due to the impact of global economic downturn, Brazil GDP achieved 1.761 trillion, only 3.3% in growth compared to 10.1% in 2008. However, the economy is expected to getting better. Economic indicators also affect the government’s expenditure on health care. Currently, the