The FINANCIAL — “Georgian distributors claim that their costs are increasing. Distributors are adding from 35 to 40 percent to the supplier price,” Giorgi Kotrikadze, Sales and Marketing Manager, Pfizer Georgian representation, told The FINANCIAL. According to Pfizer representatives “There are some monopolistic issues in the pharmaceutical distribution chain in Georgia which need to be solved.”
“The prices of suppliers from Pfizer haven’t increased, but because of our distributors there has still been a little rise in prices. Although we did manage to keep our price competitive relative to other foreign companies,” Kotrikadze said.
Pfizer Incorporated (NYSE: PFE) is a major pharmaceutical company which ranks number one in the world in sales. The company is based in New York City
In 1997 Pfizer started researching the market in Georgia and a year later the company began registration of its products. At this time Pfizer was one of the first multinational research-based biomedical and pharmaceutical companies to open its representative office in Georgia. This period was marked by development of the pharmacy market in Georgia. Another reason was that there were distribution companies already working in Georgia.
Drug and pharmaceutical imports into Georgia are approximately USD 131 million for the ten months of 2007 (Jan.-Oct.). According to Investment Guide produced by American Chamber of Commerce, Georgia has the highest consumption in the region of pharmaceutical production. The local industry in pharmaceuticals is dominated by three companies: PSP, Aversi and GPC. At the present time many drugs in Georgia may be purchased in drugstores without a doctor’s prescription.
According to the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, the World Health Organization in 2005 did an evaluation of the pharmaceutical per capita spending and ranked Georgia with Romania, Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan with a USD 10-20 per capita spending.
“We know that we can best ensure that people in Georgia have access to innovative medicines and quality healthcare through working in partnership with everyone from patients to health care providers, managed care organizations to the Georgian Government and non-governmental organizations,” the Pfizer representative told The FINANCIAL.
Pfizer Inc, founded in 1849, is dedicated to better health and greater access to healthcare for people. Every day, approximately 85,000 colleagues in more than 150 countries work to discover, develop, manufacture and deliver quality, safe and effective prescription medicines to patients.
In 2005 Pfizer Representative Office was already registered in Georgia. The sales of Pfizer in Georgia are increasing every year by 12-17%, the company representative said.
“Demand on high quality drugs is increasing in Georgia and so are our sales. We are supplying the distributor companies such as Aversi and PSP with drugs,” said Irina Petriashvili, Country Manager of the Georgian Representative Office.
“Our office is receiving drugs from Belgium and France. The cargo is quite light and is transported by air. There were certain difficulties when the flights were cancelled, but no losses during the war,” Kotrikadze told The FINANCIAL.
From the medicines produced by Pfizer, Liprimar (Lipitor) is the most demanded medicine in Georgia, as in the foreign markets. Other medicaments sold by Pfizer in Georgia are Dostinex, Norvasc, Diflucan, Viagra, Unasyn, Sermion, Xanax and Aromasin.
Today Pfizer holds 2% of the entire Georgian pharmacy market.
”We don’t have contracts with any particular hospitals. We are trying to help develop medical services in Georgia by organizing conferences and inform the doctors on new drug issues,” noted Irine Petriashvili.
“There are many large pharmaceutical and biotech companies on the market. Among our competitors are GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffman-La Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Servier. With these companies we have created an Association of Foreign Pharmaceutical Companies,” Mr. Kotrikadze told The FINANCIAL. “This association defends the intellectual property rights of foreign pharmaceutical companies on the Georgian market. There are also Turkish, Bulgarian and Ukrainian companies which are selling drugs in Georgia. There is no laboratory here that would define the quality features of the drugs. There used to be a laboratory that worked on quality control, but unfortunately it was closed for unknown reasons.”
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