New Perspectives On Consumer Health In Pharmerging Markets

By Andy Tisman, Global Senior Principal, Consumer Health at IMS Health

In Pharmerging countries, the OTC market has grown at nearly 15% CAGR over the past 2 years, and is now valued at 20% share of the total pharma market compared to only 9% in the leading mature markets. Across all these countries, eight of the top ten companies in terms of value share of the OTC market are multinationals (MNCs). While this picture might suggest that MNCs have a dominant position in the OTC market and enjoy universal success, in fact they dominate the market because they operate globally and the reality is, of course, more nuanced than this.

• Pharmerging countries contribute to only 32% of the global sales of the top 10 OTC multinationals, lower than the 35% overall contribution of Pharmerging countries to global OTC sales, indicating that MNCs are underweight in Pharmerging countries
• What is more concerning is that these leading OTC players are also losing share in Pharmerging countries to more aggressive local competitors.

The position of MNC’s in Pharmerging countries is thus, under threat. Local players have numerous home advantages and in many cases are better positioned to anticipate and take advantage of changes in the economic, regulatory and political environment in contrast to US or European-origin MNCs. However, with the right go-to-market strategies, we at IMS Health believe that MNCs can compete on a better footing with locals in Pharmerging countries and potentially reverse their underweight performance trend