After a difficult year 2012, the pharmaceutical industry saw a light in the tunnel, known as the flu season. Sales of cold medications increased by 41 percent at the turn of the year. – states Puls Biznesu.
In the last three weeks of December and the first two of January, sales of flu drugs increased in value (gross retail prices) by 41 percent, to PLN 551 million, according to data from the research company IMS Health.
This is the first real flu season in three years; it should last until the end of February – predicts the president of IMS Health, Michał Pilkiewicz.
Pharma Expert Piotr Kula also estimates that it will be at least a few weeks if the weather is just as changeable. He adds that the pharmaceutical industry will be able to make up for the decreases it recorded as a result of the reimbursement act (according to Pharma Expert data, at the end of 2012, the entire market fell by more than 6%).
Kula indicates that antibiotics had a particularly good start to the year – in the first 2-3 weeks of January, they increased in value by 45%. and by 50 percent in quantitative terms. (PAP)
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