Because of the pandemic, people began to massively buy antiviral and antibacterial drugs (their sales grew by 68% and 32%, respectively).
In 2020, the sales of pharmacy drugs grew by almost 8% compared to 2019 and amounted to $3.4 billion. For comparison, in 2015, drugs were sold through pharmacy chains for $1.9 billion.
The significant growth in pharmacy sales in monetary terms is primarily because the market share of foreign pharmaceutical companies with their expensive medicines has increased in Ukraine. And, despite the quarantine restrictions, the percentage of costly drugs in total sales continued to grow throughout the year.
Ukrainian pharmaceutical leaders
If we talk about the domestic market leaders, the situation has not changed. The top 5 in terms of pharmacy sales include the following Ukrainian companies:
- Farmak;
- Darnitsa;
- Arterium;
- Teva (Israel);
- Sanofi (France).
In general, in 2020, Ukrainian Darnitsa, Arterium and Farmak entered the global rating of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
What did people buy during the pandemic?
Over the past year, the consumption of antimicrobial drugs has grown significantly — by 35.7%, primarily disinfectants, medications for treating respiratory infections, antivirals and antibiotics. Sales volumes of drugs for the nervous and cardiovascular systems increased simultaneously — by + 7.2%.
Domestic or foreign pharmacy?
The last decade has shown a clear, stable trend: Ukrainians choose domestic medicines. In monetary terms, the share of Ukrainian-made drugs increased from 28% in 2010 to 37% in 2020.
The main consumers of Ukrainian export medicines are Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Moldova.
Innovation and digitalization of the pharmaceutical market
The growth of the pharmaceutical market is also explained by the fact that pharmaceuticals are one of the leaders in the Ukrainian economy in terms of innovation costs. The pharmaceutical sector has the highest share of innovatively active industries among all branches of the processing industry. 48% of pharmaceutical manufacturers are focused on innovations in R&D, technologies and equipment, obtaining and applying new knowledge. In 2020, Darnitsa invested $10,7 million in innovations, of which most are investments in production modernization and digital transformation.
