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PMR Research in cooperation with KPMG conducted in July this year survey among senior management of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Poland. The main objective of the study was to assess the current situation of the pharmaceutical market and to explore the market players' predictions concerning the growth of the sector in the next two years. The study was carried out with a help of the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing method (CATI). The respondents in the study were mostly managers and individuals with extensive knowledge about the condition of their respective companies and about the Polish pharmaceutical market, with whom we completed 75 interviews in total. Study results were released in the report "The Polish Pharmaceutical Market. Its Conditions and Prospects for Growth until 2011".

The pharmaceutical market in Poland has developed dynamically in the past five years, weathering difficult market conditions. As demonstrated by the results of our study, the current economic situation linked to the global economic crisis has not affected the positive performance of the pharmaceutical sector, nor has it had an adverse effect on the optimistic mood which prevails among pharmaceutical companies in Poland.

In 2008 the pharmaceutical market in Poland was worth PLN 24.1bn, which represented 11.5% growth in comparison with 2007. At present, it is among the areas of the Polish economy boasting the strongest future growth prospects. According to our forecasts, in 2009-2011 the CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) will be 7.4%, whereas pharmaceutical companies expect it to reach approx. 6%. In terms of sales value, the Polish pharmaceutical market is the sixth largest in the European Union, while in terms of the rate of sales growth (as expressed in euro), it was the second fastest growing market in the EU in 2007-2008.

Pharmaceutical companies operating in Poland provided positive assessments concerning the current situation in their sector. Nobody gave an extremely negative response, and a mere 7% of interviewees assessed the current situation as "rather bad." Over 60% of the respondents expressed a view that the situation was either "very good" or "good". Pharmaceutical companies operating in Poland provided positive assessments concerning the current situation in their sector. Nobody gave an extremely negative response, and a mere 7% of interviewees assessed the current situation as "rather bad." Over 60% of the respondents expressed a view that the situation was either "very good" or "good".

In our study we asked the respondents about measures taken in response to the global economic crisis.

Forty-three percent of respondents indicated that their companies did not take any specific action to reduce costs in view of the prevailing economic situation. Their stance was related to the aforementioned benign impact of the financial crisis on the pharmaceutical industry. Approximately one third of the companies surveyed looked to streamline costs across all categories, whereas 18% focused on reducing marketing and advertising expenses. However, a mere 3% of the companies surveyed decide to downsize their workforce; additionally, specific individual companies withdrew from certain distribution channels.

Although one third of the respondents observed a slump on the pharmaceutical market in 2009 as compared to 2008 and over one fifth expected the deterioration to continue, a mere 5% of respondents believed that the 2009 market value would be lower than in 2008, and an even smaller proportion predicted that the market value would shrink after 2009. Less than 80% of the respondents expected that the value of the pharmaceutical market would increase in the next two years. According to the respondents, the average expected growth will be around 6% year-on-year in the coming two years.

Pharmaceutical companies do not anticipate any reduction in capex spending in the main areas of business which were covered in the survey. In the case of expenditure on employee development (training, education), over 60% of companies intend to step up such expenditures in the next 12 months. The remaining companies were mostly willing to maintain their current levels of capital outlay. Likewise, approximately 60% of surveyed companies plan to expand investments on production infrastructure (such as plant extension or modernization, the purchase of new equipment, etc.) whereas the remaining companies plan to continue expenses in this area at the previous level. In most cases, spending on human resources and R&D expenditure will remain flat but it should be noted that a sizeable proportion of companies also plan to increase investments in these areas.

The survey included also following issues:

• Determinants of growth and barriers to development of the pharmaceutical market in Poland
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• Predicted effect of changes in regulations of the pharmaceutical market
• Development of distribution channels on the pharmaceutical market
• Introduction of new drugs to the mhttps://www.research-pmr.com/https://www.research-pmr.com/

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