A pharmaceutical bull runs among Brazil’s economic bears

Nearly one million demonstrators in Brazil protested a “sluggish economy, rising prices, and corruption—and to call for the impeachment of left-wing President Dilma Rousseff,” said a March 15, 2015 Reuters.com report.

In late February, meanwhile, investopedia.com’s “The Healthiest Emerging Markets in 2015” noted, “Brazil, like Russia, faces economic misfortune due to falling oil prices, and many economists expect increased inflation and zero growth in 2015.”

To be sure, both the Reuters and investopedia articles together paint a dour picture for the BRIC country this year. And yet, the pharmaceutical market will try to shine some light into that dark macroeconomic environment during FCE Pharma  May 12-14 in São Paulo, Brazil. The 20th edition of the event, which includes FCE Cosmetique, follows the 19th edition, which included 17,635 professionals.

Bullish on serialization, track and trace

Bologna, Italy-based packaging machinery supplier The Marchesini Group will exhibit at the show (shown in this story’s photo is the company’s PS 310 TT case packer, which will be on display at FCE Pharma). Through a press release, the company offered a much more optimistic look at the Brazilian market:

“FCE Pharma, the most important pharmaceutical and cosmetic trade fair in Latin America, will prove once again that the Brazilian pharmaceutical packaging market is thriving.

“This is a market where serialization and track and trace are particularly felt and generate a lot of interest. Indeed, they became central in Brazil after the Federal regulator ANVISA published in 2013 guidance on the reporting requirements for its medicine track-and-trace system throughout the pharma supply chain, which is due to come fully online in 2016.”

The Marchesini press release continued, “By this time, Brazilian pharmaceutical manufacturers are required to have adapted and implemented their production equipment so that every single step of the productive chain can be monitored, thus improving safety and achieving a higher level of transparency for patients.”

What is the ‘nutricosmetics’ market?

A report on WhaTech.com said that Brazil, South Africa, UAE, Taiwan, and others represent “an untapped market and will offer substantial growth opportunity for manufacturers in the nutricosmetics market.” What’s that, you ask?

“The nutricosmetics market is segmented into liquid and pill, which is further subdivided into skin care, hair care and others,” noted the March 16, 2015 WhaTech report. “Nutricosmetics are oral-based natural health products containing targeted nutrients and antioxidants that can have a preventative or treatment effect on the skin, hair, and nails.”

The report forecasts that the global nutricosmetics market will rise at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 11.5% from 2014 to 2020, and account for US$7.16 billion by 2020.

In its overview of the pharmaceutical market in Brazil, UK-based business intelligence firm Espicom.com reported: “The Brazilian pharmaceutical market remains our favorite regional market….due to its large market size and strong domestic demand for innovative, high-tech products. The government is increasingly investing in the healthcare sector and pharmaceutical industry to reduce the financial burden of diseases, and the country's private healthcare sectors provide opportunities for foreign companies.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “The pharmaceutical industry in Brazil,”  explained: “As already indicated in some editions of the series ‘Pharma 2020,’ published by PwC, it is estimated that, by 2020, companies will become more dependent on emerging markets, where between 30% and 55% of their revenues will be generated. In the case of Brazil, revenue on the sale of patent medication will be less than that of generics: US$ 8.8 billion vs. US$ 15.3 billion. This situation, like the rest of the production and market structure in Brazil, represents a paradox for pharmaceutical companies. The market potential is large, but obtaining a return is difficult, and the dispute between competitors is very strong.”