Last year was a good one for the Polish pharmaceutical industry, as it saw its revenues grow by 10.3 percent y/y, to zł.19.4 billion.

“This is a big increase, especially taking into account that last year was a crisis year in other sectors of the economy,” said Monika Stefańczyk, a pharmaceutical market analyst at PMR. “This goes to show that the pharmaceutical industry is a sector apart from others and is not subject to the rules of economics.”

Source: IMS Health

“There were more infections at the beginning of the year,” explained Ms Stefańczyk. “In such situations Poles don’t spare expenses, they buy medicine. The end of the year saw the swine flu panic, which in November caused the highest increases in sales.”

According to IMS Health Poland, the leader on the Polish pharmaceutical market in 2009 was multinational Sanofi-Aventis, with revenues of over zł.1.1 billion, an increase of nine percent. The company retails the best-selling drug in Poland – Clexane, which reduces blood clotting activity. Last year sales of Clexane brought in zł.288 million in revenues.

Polpharma was the next-best performer, noting a five-percent increase in revenues, to zł.962 million. GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals came in third, registering zł.953 million in revenues, an increase of six percent.

This year also augers well for pharmaceuticals. According to IMS Health Poland sales director Andrzej Kraska, the market will increase by five to 10 percent.

“A dynamic closer to 10 percent is more probable,” he said at a conference last week.