Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7a4e4f/algeria_pharmaceut) has announced the addition of the "Algeria Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q4 2009" subscription to their offering.
This Algeria Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, pharmaceutical associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Algeria's pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.
In this Q409 Business Environment Rankings matrix for the 17 key countries of the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, Algeria remains in a lowly 14th position. While its considerable population size (over 34mn and growing) and the substantial potential for healthcare investment provide some draws, low per-capita spending and wide-ranging deficiencies in its regulatory and pricing and reimbursement environment will continue to hamper major improvements in the country's score. The country remains among the bottom ten markets of the 71 countries surveyed by BMI globally. Nevertheless, depending on the wider economic climate, Algeria's pharmaceutical expenditure should increase over the coming five years, from DZD159bn (US$2.35bn) in 2008 to reach DZD209bn (US$2.94bn) in 2013, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.62% in local currency terms.
The government has indicated its commitment to the improvement of its population's health, outlining a programme through to 2025 which includes the expansion of hospital beds. While this situation will provide substantial opportunities to foreign players - most of which operate in the country through imports or local partnerships - they may be discouraged by the ban on imports of drugs that can be made locally, especially as the list of such drugs is to be extended from the start of 2010. Even though this will put the brakes on Algeria's bid for World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, the government is keen to protect the local drug industry, which is mostly engaged in the manufacture of generics.