Belgian pharmaceutical sales sees slow growth, impacted by encouragement of generics

Out of a maximum of 100, Belgium scored 65.1 in Business Monitor International’s fourth-quarter 2010 Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Business Environment Ratings (BERs) report, placing it joint fifth in the Western Europe matrix, on a par with the UK and below Germany, Switzerland, France and Sweden.

Although growth in medicine sales is low, the country has a very large market in absolute terms, notes BMI. Furthermore, per-capita spending is high, there is a sizeable pensionable population and regulations are transparent. Emphasising its attractiveness as a pharmaceutical market globally, Belgium is placed joint 11th of the 77 markets surveyed in BMI’s ever expanding pharmaceutical universe.

Pharmacy reimbursement system discourages high-cost patented drugs