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Alliance, Farmexim is part of the German PHOENIX group. Profit margins 17 of the
pharmaceutical distributors are not high, they range from 1% to 4% for the top 3 distributors.

The National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices has the tendency to set the prices for

pharmaceutical products relatively low. Which might explain the low profit margins.

5.2.3 Pharmaceutical production

Romania has a pharmaceutical production industry, in size not comparable to western

multinational companies. The ten largest companies have a combined turnover of 610m euro

(see Annex E: Production companies). The largest pharmaceutical producers are:

1. Terapia – Sun Pharma, Cluj-Napoca, turnover: EUR 144.0m

2. Zentiva, Bucharest, turnover: 98.4m

3. Bioeel, Targu Mureş, turnover: 73.1m

4. Ropharma, Brasov, turnover:73.0m

5. Antibiotice, Iași, turnover: 72.5m

The size of the companies is relatively large in context of the Romanian economy. With a

turnover of EUR 144m, and employing 867 staff Terapia - part of the global Sun Pharma

company - is considered a large business in Romania -

in the world of global pharmaceutical

companies not. Profitability in this sector varies from excellent to basic. Zentiva and Terapia

are very profitable, with a margin of 19%, they both reach levels comparable to

pharmaceutical multinationals. However, Bioeel and Ropharma score a profit margin of under

2%, Antibiotice is at 10% in the middle. Most of the pharmaceutical producers are

manufacturing prescription drugs, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, vitamins, dietary

supplements and a minority also produces cosmetics. Antibiotice exports about one quarter

of its production, mainly to neighbouring countries. The modest size of the medicine

production is likely due to the tax clawback levied on medicine production companies. The tax

– introduced in the wake of the recession in 2009 – is meant to pay for reimbursed medicines,

and to reduce government expenditure on drugs.

5.2.4 International trade in pharmaceutical products

In the previous paragraphs it became clear that the production of pharmaceuticals is a lot

lower than the distribution: production EUR 610m distribution EUR 3,235m. Inevitably the

difference must come from international trade. In 2017 an import of 2,907m euro of

pharmaceutical products was recorded and an export of 732m. Table 5.2 gives an overview of

the Romanian imports of pharmaceutical products, divided into six sub product groups. The

largest subgroup by far are the medicines in doses at 84% of total. Second are the blood

products with a share of 17%. Medicines in doses show a continuous growth, blood products

have a more varied development, but ending in 2017 on the highest level.

17 Profit margin is here defined as: nett profit/turnover

33