Abstract
Includes 3 quarterly updated outlook reports!
Finland is one of the most northern countries in Europe and covers around
338,000km2, of which 10% is water. The population is estimated to be 5.3
million in 2009, resulting in a population density of 17.1 people per square
kilometre.
The Finnish market for pharmaceuticals is predicted to increase by 6.3% per
annum at constant prices to attain a value of US$4.7 billion by 2014. The
current market size is estimated to be US$3.5 billion, equal to US$659 per
capita.
Healthcare expenditure has continued its steady growth in the past few years,
increasing by 4.6% in 2006 to 13.6 billion euros (US$17.1 billion), with
private expenditure accounting for approximately 24.0% of the total.
A reference price system was introduced in April 2009 in an effort to reduce
rising healthcare costs. It is hoped that the new system will reduce the use
of expensive medicinal products, thus lowering the costs for patients and
reducing the pressure to raise health insurance payments.
However, Finland is likely to be affected by the global economic downturn,
with GDP real growth expected to fall to -5.4% in 2009, according to figures
from the Economist Intelligence Unit, and begin to recover by 2011 with a real
growth of 1.7%.
The import of pharmaceuticals to Finland increased by 53.9% between 2004 and
2008 to reach US$2.3 billion in 2008. In 2008, Finland exported US$1.0 billion
of pharmaceuticals, of which 94.9% was in the form of retail medicaments.
Domestic production totalled 621.5 million euros (US$913.6 million) in 2008, a
rise of 9.8% over 2007.
There are very few large domestic producers in Finland. The largest, Orion
Pharma, claims to hold a market share of approximately 8.8%. Pfizer Oy and
Leiras Oy claim to have market shares of 4.8% and 4.5%, respectively.
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