|
Slower demand in the fourth quarter hit overall full-year
growth in the pharmaceutical industry last year, and has led to
pessimism about growth prospects for this year, an industry association
says.
GP Farmasi (Pharmaceutical Business Association) chairman Anthony C.H.
Sunarjo said Wednesday that a 3 percent decline in sales in last year's
fourth quarter resulted in a reduction in the industry's growth from 12
percent in 2005 to 8.6 percent in 2006.
Indonesia's market for pharmaceutical products was estimated at about
Rp 24 trillion (US$2.6 billion) last year, he added. Anthony was
speaking at the announcement of a collaborative venture between GP
Farmasi and Microsoft Indonesia.
He said that the slower sales were mainly due to a decline in people's
purchasing power, and the government move to lower the prices of
generic drugs by between 5 and 30 percent in July.
Anthony said this had affected manufacturers' revenues as 90 percent of
their raw materials were imported.
As purchasing power had yet to recover, he said he expected that this
year's growth would not be significant."
However, Parulian Simanjuntak, chairman of the International
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group (IPMG) -- a unit of GP Farmasi --
said that the sales of drugs produced by multinational pharmaceutical
firms had remained robust.
"Our members' sales grew by 10 percent last year," he said, adding that
the IPMG's members did not produce generic drugs.
Regarding the collaborative venture with Microsoft, Anthony said it was
aimed at promoting the use of licensed software among GP Farmasi's
members.
"The information technology business and pharmaceutical industry are
the two sectors that are most affected by piracy and counterfeiting,
thus making operations difficult," Microsoft Indonesia director for
small and midmarket solutions Irwan Tirtariyadi said Wednesday.
Under the agreement with GP Farmasi, Microsoft Indonesia would offer
the members of the association special prices, and invite them to
seminars on licensing and software asset management.
According to Anthony, GP Farmasi groups together 200 producers, 2,500
wholesalers, 7,000 pharmacies and 10,000 stores selling
over-the-counter medicines.
He said the venture with Microsoft would be of benefit to the
association's members as the pharmaceutical industry was
research-intensive and highly dependent on IT.
|
