Slovenia improves ranking among CEE nations; govt pushes pharma cost-cutting

Slovenia is ranked ninth of the 20 markets assessed in Central and Eastern European (CEE) nations, up by one place in relation to the previous quarter in Business Monitor International’s Business Environment Ratings (BERs) table for fourth-quarter 2010. Overall, Slovenia's attractiveness suffers from a small market size and low forecast growth, although the high per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and widespread health awareness play in favor of pharmaceutical companies.

In addition to a 49 million-euro ($61 million) reduction in its health care budget in early June 2010, the Slovenian Ministry of Health has now proposed a series of pharmaceutical cost-containment measures. These developments will impact sales and increase price competition in the country's drug market.

Efforts to contain publicly-funded pharmaceutical costs in Slovenia are not dissimilar to the actions of other European states to limit health care expenditure and generally cut their budgets. Slovenia's continuing economic difficulties are significant, but not disproportionate to the rest of Europe, with nominal GDP growth of -6% in 2009 and a government budget deficit of 1.8 billion euros ($2.25 billion), almost 5% of GDP, notes BMI.