Uzbekistan. Pharmaceutical market overview and structure

By the end of 2009, 477,400,000 units of medical drugs and health products for total amount of 98 billion soums were produced in Uzbekistan, of which Uzfarmsanoat SJSC companies produced 140.11 million units for total amount of 82.48 billion soums.

Output of medical drugs and health products totalled 102.1 billion soums in 2010, facilitating 104.4% growth. Medical drugs in the amount of 92.9 billion soums, bandaging materials worth 2.4 billion soums, auxiliary materials (vials and laminated tubes) – 4.8 billion soums and other products worth 1.92 billion soums were produced enabling the growth in the share of medical drugs up to 91% in 2010.

Table 1. Manufacturing output of the Uzbek pharmaceutical industry in 2008-2010 (bn, soums and mio units)

Of total output of product, 35.14% were manufactured by companies under the Uzfarmsanoat SJSC, and value-wise the products manufactured and sold by Uzfarmsanoat SJSC account for 58% of the output. Considering average annual growth rates (140-160% per annum), this indicator is projected to grow up to 76% by 2015.

Figure 1. Output of Uzfarmsanoat companies in January-December 2010

As for prospects of development of pharmaceutical sector in general, it is envisaged to increase the output in 2009-2015 up to:

• 483.9 mln. units (or 5.9 times) of injected medicines (82.3 mln. units, of which 10 mln. - Uzfarmsanoat companies in 2009 );
• 62.3 mln. units (or 5.8 times) infusion drugs (10.7 mln. units, of which 6.95 mln. units - Uzfarmsanoat companies in 2009 );
• 247.8 mln. units (or 5.7 times) tableted drugs (43.4 mln. units, of which 27.4mln. - Uzfarmsanoat companies in 2009 );
• 156.4 mln. units (or 7.6 times) capsuled drugs (20.5 mln. units, of which 1.42 mln. units - Uzfarmsanoat companies in 2009 );
• 14.4 mln. units (or 3.5 times) ointments (4.1 mln. units, produced by Uzfarmsanoat companies in 2009);
• 12.0 mln.doses (or 12 times) of vaccines and sera (1 mln. units, of which 10,000 - Uzfarmsanoat companies in 2009);
• 300.0 tons (or 150 times) substances of medical drugs, produced by miscellaneous pharmaceutical companies;
• 560 mln.pcs (or 5.1 times) disposable syringes manufactured by miscellaneous pharmaceutical companies.

Total operating revenues of the companies is planned to be increased 6.5-fold by 2015, reaching 668.7 billion soums.

Figure 2. Projected growth of pharmaceuticals production during 2009-2015

Currently following groups of products constitute the main range of pharmaceutical products:

• Medical drugs, including injecting and infusion drugs, capsules, liquid medicines, powders, pills, antibiotics, ointments;
• Health products, including bandages, absorbent and medical cotton wool, suture materials, disposable syringes and drip-up systems;
• Other products including glass tubes, polyethylene products, medicinal teas and herbs, biologically active additives, disinfectants, biopreparations and diagnostic sets.

The pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan recently has demonstrated impressive trends: average annual growth rate was approximately 25% in the last two years. Analysis of the data pertinent to the results and projected indicators for upcoming several years demonstrated the following.

By the end of 2009, the composition of all medical products produced by all companies of industry looks as follows (in %):

Figure 3. Composition of the output of main medical drugs in 2009

Higher output of main groups of products is projected in medium-term future. 5-7 fold growth of production of medical drugs is projected, and 2.5-8-fold growth in the output of health products and other pharmaceutical products is projected by 2015. Below are analytical studies of existing composition of production of pharmaceutical products by all companies in the sector and medium-term projections of change.

In near future substantial expansion of the range and list of medical drugs is projected: while there were 10 products in the main list in 2009, there will be 16 groups of products by 2015, including production of suppositories, eye drops, probiotics, vaccines, insulin, substances.

Total output will be 468 billion soums thanks to implementation and start of production of new medications. Increased output of probiotics, vaccines, insulin, substances is expected to reach 81.2 billion soums, while the percentage of pills and injecting preparations will increase from 26% and 11.3% in 2009 up to 30% and 13.5%, respectively, by 2015.

Figure 4. Composition of production of main medical products in 2009.

7-fold increase in the group of medical products is planned by 2015.

Figure 5. Composition of the output of main medical drugs in 2015

Manufacturing of syringes (8.6-fold) and bandages (8.5-fold) will grow the most, whereas production of dripups (4-fold), suture materials, and absorbent cotton wool (double) will have lower growth rates.

Figure 6. Projected composition of production of main medical products in 2015 (%)

To this end, the range of products will change somewhat, and production of syringes will still have the biggest weight, which amounted to 59% in total output or 4.2 billion soums in 2009, whereas their share will increase up to 78% and total 36.7 billion soums by 2015. Production of absorbent cotton wool will decrease from 20% to 6%, although the output will increase from 1.3 billion soums to 3 billion soums.

Output of bandaging materials will grow from 956 million soums up to 8.2 billion soums, respectively; its share in total output will grow from 13% to 16%.

Rapid growth (4.5 -fold) - increase in the output of other products from nearly 4 billion to 18 billion soums is expected. Output of polyethylene products will have the highest rate of growth from 13 billion soums in 2009 to 7.7 billion soums by 2015.

Figure 7. Composition of production of main Medical Products in 2009.

Production of medicinal herbal teas will develop rapidly. While their output totalled 580 million soums in 2009, the output is expected to reach 3.3 billion soums or grow by 5.6 times by 2015. 4.7-fold increase in the production of glass tubes is expected, but percentage-wise ratio remains the same in the composition of entire group.

Figure 8. Projected composition of production of main medical products by 2015.

Output of disinfectants will grow by 4.4%, active biological additives – by 2.1 times, biopreparations – 31%, diagnostic sets – by 198%. Thus, state programme is targeted on faster growth of pharmaceutical production in the next 5 years both by promoting foreign investments and financing from the State Fund for reconstruction and Development.

As for companies, which represent Uzfarmsanoat SJSC, it is notable that output indicators were growing robustly in the last several years. In recent years increase of output indicators exceed analogous indicators of last period by 1.5 times.

Source: UNDP