Global Pharmaceutical Sales Expected to Rise to $880bn in 2011

IMS Health predicts that global drug sales will increase 5 to 7 per cent next year, driven by development of innovative pharmaceuticals and growth of emerging markets. Secure Pharma Chain sees this as a major driver to continued proliferation of counterfeit medications.

In-PharmaTechnologist published a story yesterday on the IMS report regarding the rise in global drug sales for 2011.

The report shows that although there will “constraints” to the traditional developed markets because of the loss of major drugs to patent protections, significant growth in emerging markets globally will still mean continued growth.

Secure Pharma Chain anticipates that based on the information in this report, the growth in the emerging markets in China will result in still higher growth in substandard, fraudulent, adulterated and counterfeit medications in 2011.

This estimation is driven by industry experts like Terry Hisey from Deloitte and the World Health Organization, significantly raising their estimates in 2010 as to the annual global value of counterfeit medications to a range from $75b to $200b with a annual growth rate of 12to 15 per cent.

These factors and the state of the global economy in general mean that the global pharmaceutical market place will face many challenges going forward.

Secure Pharma Chain encourages all members of the pharmaceutical supply chain to protect their inventories from this growing threat by deploying technologies and solutions designed to authenticate and validate products within the supply channel.

Included in the In-PharmaTechnologist article:

• China is expected to enter 2011 as the third largest pharmaceutical market after the US and Japan, overtaking Germany with a predicted 25 per cent growth and $50bn in sales.

• By 2015, annual spending on prescription drugs in another 16 emerging markets is expected to increase by at least $1bn, which for the lowest spender in the group, Vietnam, will mark a doubling of this year’s expenditure.

• Innovative products in areas of stroke prevention, melanoma, multiple sclerosis, breast cancer and hepatitis C are expected to enter the market next year, representing 30-35 new chemical and biological entities with five predicted to reach blockbuster status.

• While 2011 is expected to bring global drugs sales of $880-890bn, “the underlying constraints to growth in developed markets are stronger than ever”, according to Murray Aitken, Senior Vice President at IMS, with “major drugs losing patent protection and facing generic competition for the first time”. The new potential blockbuster drugs are not expected to provide market growth “beyond what we’ve seen in the past 3 years which is at historically low levels”.

To read the entire In-PharmaTechnologist article, visit: http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/Industry-Drivers/IMS-prediction-Emerging-markets-front-5-7-rise-in-drug-sales-for-2011

To learn more about pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/

in-Pharma Technologist: Sanofi Works to Secure Egyptian Drug Supply Chain

French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis continues to spearhead the fight for a more secure pharmaceutical supply chain by launching an anti-counterfeit medication initiative in Egypt

Wai Lang Chu on June 23rd posted a story on in-Pharma Technologist about the mega Pharma manufacturer working within Egyptian authorities on addressing and countering the growing problem of drug manufacturing infiltration and drug counterfeiting in Egypt.

The following are some of the highlights of the posting:

· The move (by Sanofi) is the first of a three-phase initiative undertaken by the drug company and the Egyptian Ministry of Health to try to address and counter the growing problem of drug manufacturing infiltration and medicine counterfeiting in the country.
· Under the new project, Sanofi have worked alongside the country’s authorities providing them with guidance and training on the latest techniques in identifying counterfeit medication.
· Staff from Sanofi led an Egyptian delegation including officials from the Ministry of Health, the Customs Authority and the Ministry of Interior's Anti-smuggling Unit from the Ministry of Finance, to its Central Anti-Counterfeit Laboratory based in Tours, France.
· The delegation also visited the Customs Authority located in Le Havre to examine its anti-smuggling measures before visiting the French Ministry of Health.
· Over the last couple of years Sanofi have been making significant ground on tackling the problem of counterfeit drugs. Its Tours laboratories, opened in 2008, are the first of its kind and illustrate the measures pharma companies have to go to in order to secure it manufacturing and worldwide production capabilities.
· For example, Sanofi’s laboratories routinely conduct direct examinations of packaging items and leaflets as well as definitive chemical tests on suspect samples of commonly counterfeited products.
· Staff at the lab have developed test methods, distributing them globally in order to allow industrial plants to inspect and test, with the same criteria, the suspect products corresponding to those manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis.
· The drug firm have also introduced centralised ‘Identity Cards’ for the counterfeit drugs found, in a single, central data base, to make it possible to compare different types of counterfeit. · Sanofi’s collaboration with Egypt is part of efforts by its Government to tackle a problem that is picked up on globally and tarnishes the county’s reputation. Data from Business Monitor International (BMI) has identified Egypt as having made significant progress in tackling the counterfeit drug problem in the last two years.

Secure Pharma Chain Blog endorses the joint effort of industry and regulatory authorities working together to solve this insidious, deadly criminal act and encourages all members of the global pharmaceutical chain to work closely with government agencies in their anti-counterfeiting efforts.

The most effective processes to interdict fraud, adulteration and counterfeit medications includes a multi-layered approach of authentication technology solutions within the supply chain from production to dispensing.

It will take all members of the pharmaceutical supply chain, working together to solve this deadly crime to the consumer. No single link in the chain can effectively or successfully eradicate bogus drugs by itself.

To read the entire in-Pharma Technologist story, visit: http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/Industry-Drivers/Sanofi-works-to-secure-Egyptian-drug-supply-chain/?c=qendTuKNp6H%2BO0zFmrXycw%3D%3D&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BDaily.

To learn more about authentication solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/.