Latvia's pharmaceuticals market declined 5% last year due to adverse economic conditions

The Latvian pharmaceutical market was worth 244 million lats ($482 million) in 2009, assuming a year-on-year decrease of around 4.9% in local currency terms, according to a new report from Business Monitor International. Spending on medicines was negatively impacted by adverse economic conditions, which led to an increase in unemployment rates and cuts in reimbursement bands, among other issues.

In fact, BMI expect the recession to have hit Latvia's pharmaceutical expenditure hardest of the 71 drug markets it surveys on a global scale. Therefore, in BMI's Business Environment Rating (BER) matrix for the second quarter of 2010, Latvia is found in a lowly 15th position (out of the 20 regional markets), trailing its Baltic neighbor Estonia once again, but placed above Lithuania.

Growth to resume post-2011