Pharmaceutical companies are doing well, despite the turbulence caused by the global economic crisis.
Medication sales reached $4.2 billion in 2020, increasing by 4.7% year over year, even though the actual number of drugs sold went down. Producers sold more prescription drugs that are usually more expensive.
Ukrainians tend to put more trust in imported drugs, which is borne out in statistics: 64% of the drugs sold in Ukraine are foreign. Ukraine imports mostly from Germany, India and France.
The industry saw waves in demand during each of the three nationwide lockdowns in 2020–2021. The first one in spring 2020 hit the hardest: as businesses closed their doors, people stayed home and rarely visited pharmacies.
For some time, according to Proxima Research, Ukrainian pharmaceutical firms started losing money for the first time in their history.
But the market bounced back quickly after the lockdown was lifted. By August, the sales had levelled out.
Most imported drugs in Ukraine come from Germany. Ukraine’s bestseller drug Xarelto, for example, is sold by German pharmaceutical firm Bayer.
Since the start of the pandemic, producers sold fewer medicines for respiratory and gastrointestinal ailments because people wear face masks and pay more attention to keeping their hands clean.
The demand for medicines used in neurology and cardiology hasn’t changed.
There was more demand for what pharmas call “the COVID portfolio”: antibiotics, vitamins C and D, zinc, and low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH; a class of anticoagulant medications used in the prevention of blood clots) — all prescribed in Ukraine to treat COVID-19 and pneumonia.
The bestseller in Ukraine is Xarelto, a medicine used to treat blood clots.
People were also buying medications without doctors’ approval. Uncontrolled consumption led to a deficit of LMWH and zinc.
Doctors often prescribed antibiotics to treat COVID-19 or comorbid illnesses. Seeing this, patients’ friends and relatives often bought antibiotics in droves to self-medicate at home.
Pharmaceutical companies stressed that uncontrolled consumption of antibiotics could cause microbes to develop resistance to the drug, which would make it harder to treat these patients in the future. Infection can’t be destroyed by antibiotics anymore.
The chairman of the executive board of Darnitsa Group, Dmytro Shymkiv, says the demand for antibiotics has been “enormous.” At one point, key pharmaceutical firms even asked the Health Ministry to regulate their use in Ukraine.
“Even the doctors who had never prescribed antibiotics, started administering them,” Shymkiv says. “They just got scared.”
Antibiotics work only against bacteria, not viruses. According to the World Health Organization, antibiotics should not be used for prevention or treatment.
Even so, health officials have done nothing to regulate these drugs.
Despite the high demand for the “COVID portfolio” and the national currency fluctuation that made it more expensive to import raw materials, the companies resisted raising drug prices.
The industry remains highly competitive: the 10 largest companies control only 30.8% of the market, according to news website Apteka.
Farmak is the biggest pharmaceutical company on the market with a 5.6% share. Darnitsa is last year’s runner-up, with a 3.6% share. Israeli pharmaceutical Teva is in close third place with 3.5%.
Overall, despite the strict lockdown and quarantine measures that hampered the Ukrainian economy, the industry ended the year with positive results. Experts believe the industry will grow even more in 2021 — by 6.5–11.4%.
Farmak is the largest pharmaceutical firm on the market with a 5.6% share. Darnitsa is last year’s runner-up, with a 3.6% share.
