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Healthcare: Pharmaceutical market in Romania: number of pharmacies in Bucharest and the country and heir business value
Pharmaceutical retail in Romania, represented by over 8,200 drug stores grew last year by 1.7% compared to 2013, to 10.5 billion lei (2.4 billion euros) according to estimates made by market research company PMR, which foresees an increase of 4.3% this year.
The total number of pharmacies remained relatively constant last year. According to data from the Health ministry, most pharmacies are found in Bucharest (about 1,000), Constanta (430) and Iasi (415)while the fewest are in Covasna (60), Caras Severin (74) and Salaj (75) counties.
“According to our estimates about 17% of drug stores in Romania belong to 5 of the largest pharmacy chains. According to our respondents pharmacy chains will continue to expand in Romania in the future. There are also smaller networks with strong regional position such as Ecofarmacia, active in Transylvania and Vlad Pharmacy, active in Timisoara,”the PMR report shows.
The first 5 networks are Catena, owned by Anca Vlad, with over 500 units, Sensiblu, belonging to A&D Pharma group, with over 400 units, Dona (275), a network owned by Eugen Banciu, Help Net (175), part of Farmexim distributor and Ropharma (125) owned by Mihai Miron.
Other important pharmacies are the group of independent drug stores Ethica (250 in 10 counties), Richter Pharmacy owned by the Hungarian pharmaceutical group Gedeon Richter, Belladona (100), Remedia (90) owned by Valentin Norberts Tarus and Reteta (80) owned by Vonica family of Sibiu.
According to PMR, the value of pharmaceutical retail is estimated to grow by 4.3% this year, 7.5% in 2016, 7.2% in 2017, 7.3% in 2018 and 2019.
The research company mentions that the updating of the list of compensated medicines will lead to the increase of the innovating medicines in the next years. However many products are not available for Romanian patients, while they are found in EU, PMR shows.
In Central Europe including Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia there were 34,200 drug stores at the end of October 2014, 600 more than in the previous year.
Over 40% of them - 14,600, are in Poland, followed by Romania- 23.9%, Bulgaria - 12.2%, Hungary -8.7%, Czech Republic 8.2% and Slovakia 5.6%.