Governments across Europe have implemented cost-containment measures to reduce healthcare expenditure and this will lead to growth in the generics sector, according to the report by Research & Markets.
However, the report predicts that the impact of this shift will be most pronounced in France, where the generic sector is underdeveloped because of the nation’s focus on innovation.
As a result of this government led change of focus the report predicts that France’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) market will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.95 per cent from 2008 to 2020.
Furthermore, the report believes that France is better equipped to benefit from growth in the biologics API market than its Western European competitors, such as Germany and the UK.
France’s traditional expertise in biologics will help it achieve this growth. In contrast, countries that are focused on innovative synthetic APIs are predicted to struggle.
Growth in this market is predicted to slow as a result of European governments’ cost-containment measures, which will benefit generics at the expense of innovation, according to the report.
This will result in the European innovative synthetic API market achieving a CAGR of four per cent from 2008 to 2020. In contrast, the European generic API market will grow at a CAGR of seven per cent over the same period.
Shift in API outsourcing
A separate report, also by Research & Markets, predicts that the market for contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) will grow to $60bn (€41.7bn) in the next five years.
The greatest beneficiary of this growth will be India, which has already achieved a high level of sophistication in chemicals and is adding biologics capacity and expertise.
India’s development has led to increased acquisitions in both directions between the country and traditional markets. Consequently technical capabilities, quality control and intellectual property protection have improved.
The report predicts that the growth and strengthening of the Indian market will result in the nation’s companies becoming new drug innovators and rivals to western businesses.
By this time China will have taken India’s place as the leader in the CRAMS market, according to the report.