OTC drug market in Bulgaria continues to grow

2010-02-04

In 2009, the Bulgarian OTC drug market grew by 3.2% in terms of value year on year to BGN 295.8m (€151.5m), according to IMS Health. The growth of the market was driven by the efforts of pharmacies to diversify their stocks, offering more OTC products, which offer better profit margins.
Painkillers represented the most substantial share, around 21%, of the overall OTC market in terms of value in 2009.
The best selling OTC drugs were Analgin (Sopharma), Aspirin Protect (Bayer) and Tylol Hot (Nobel Pharma).


The leader on the OTC market was Sopharma, a Bulgarian drug producer, which generated the most substantial sales of non-prescription products in terms of value and seized a 9.3% market share. However, the company was followed closely by Actavis, which outperformed the former in terms of sales volume and became the leader with a market share of almost 17%. In turn, Bayer achieved the most substantial increase in OTC sales lat year, taking into account top 10 companies on the market: 42% year on year in terms of value and 28.5% in terms of volume.