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Argentina's pharmaceutical market will become increasingly unattractive to multinational pharmaceutical companies, as the double-digit market growth has been mainly driven by the high inflation rate. The strict currency and import restrictions, as well as poor regulatory regime, have further undermined foreign drugmakers' revenue-generating opportunities. A potential currency devaluation in the future will increase Argentina's export of medicines to a certain extent, if the country's structural distorting policies have not eroded its local pharmaceutical production capacity.
Headline Expenditure Projections
Pharmaceuticals: ARS31.30bn (US$7.58bn) in 2011 to ARS39.60bn (US$8.74bn) in 2012; +26.5% in local currency terms and 15.3% in US dollar terms. The forecast has increased since Q412 due to exchange rate fluctuations from previous years, and high inflation rate forecast for 2012.
Healthcare: ARS156.12bn (US$37.82bn) in 2011 to ARS198.71bn (US$30.23bn) in 2012; +27.3% in local currency terms and +16% in US dollar terms. The forecast has increased since Q412 due to over 25% inflation rate forecast for 2012.
Medical devices: ARS3.77bn (US$913mn) in 2011 to ARS4.39bn (US$971mn) in 2012; +16.5% in local currency terms and 6.2% in US dollar terms. The US dollar forecast has decreased since Q412 due to exchange rate fluctuations.
Risk/Reward Rating: Argentina remains at the eighth place in BMI's RRRs in Q113. However, the poor regulatory regime and high inflation rate are still challenging for the multinational drug companies. The deteriorating business environment and protectionist policies will also have a negative impact on the market. Argentina's pharmaceutical market is expected to grow at double-digit rates through to 2016 in local currency terms, largely due to inflation.
Competitive Landscape
The competitive landscape section provides comparative company analyses and rankings by US$ sales and % share of total sales - for the total pharmaceutical sector, as well as the OTC, generics, and distribution sub-sectors.