Drugmakers are 'under-exposed' in emerging markets, report says

Growing markets for pharmaceuticals in China, Brazil, Russia and India are outpacing national markets in Europe and the U.S., but major drugmakers have been slow to expand in these markets and may lose opportunities, a new study finds, The New York Times reports. To put the shift in perspective, China will overtake both France and Germany next year in terms of drug spending, while Brazil will overtake Britain, according to the report by research firm IMS Health."Unless the world's current leaders in brand-name drugs move more nimbly to expand into those emerging markets, they will miss the big growth opportunities and cede those markets to local players, the report said" (Singer, 3/16).

"IMS says growth in China has come even more quickly than it expected. In 2006, it predicted China would be the world's sixth-largest pharmaceutical market by 2011," the Associated Press reports. Now, the company says it will be the third largest by that year. "The two largest markets are the U.S. and Japan" (3/16).

In other drug news, "Seniors who hit the coverage gap in their Medicare prescription drug plans and must use their own money to buy drugs are facing price increases that are far outpacing inflation, a new study finds," Kaiser Health News reports. "According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, prices paid by enrollees in standalone Part D plans who enter the coverage gap increased 5 percent or more since January 2009 for half of 10 brand-name drugs most commonly used by seniors. That's almost twice the rate of inflation over the same period" (Marcy, 3/16).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.