Qatar Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q4 2009

Qatar is now ranked third out of 17 countries in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in BMI's Q409 Business Environment Rankings (BER), slipping from second in the previous quarter. While Qatar offers a favourable market and country structure, including a predictable operating environment and a sound economic base, its overall score is dragged down by a small and a relatively young population, despite high per-capita spend on pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, Qatar's high level of urbanisation and rapid population growth create an environment in which there is strong longer term potential for market growth, even though we caution that the government may be forced to take a less generous approach to reimbursement if oil revenues decline.

The above holds especially true given the recent creation of a new Supreme Council for Health, which has been given the power to set prices for medical services and pharmaceuticals, as well as being charged with the fine-tuning and implementing new healthcare insurance legislation. Nevertheless, the value of Qatar's pharmaceutical market, estimated at QAR743mn (US$204mn) in 2008, should reach QAR1.07bn (US$295mn) in 2013, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.63% in both local currency and US dollar terms, as the former is pegged to the latter. Prescription medicines will remain the key driver of this expansion. Even though the focus on the use of generic medicines should increase towards the end of the forecast period, the changing epidemiological profile of the country will continue to require more frequent usage of longer-term and chronic diseases medicines.

In fact, the prevalence of respiratory diseases has been on the rise, due to the exposure to dust and other particles at building sites. Experts noted an increase in the number of cases of asthma and similar respiratory problems, mostly among expatriate workers, given the rapidly expanding construction industry in the country. Indeed, occupational asthma has been singled out as one of the most pressing health issues. On the other hand, the spread of the swine flu virus ??