Drug companies Sopharma and Phoenix Pharma join billion-dollar club in 2022 in Bulgaria
Source：Kapital Insights
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Sofia
Update Time：2024/05/03
Even without a pandemic, the pharmaceutical market in Bulgaria continued to grow in 2022, with the top twenty companies from the sector in the annual K100 ranking by Capital reporting average revenue growth of 9.2%. Moreover, two of the companies with the highest turnover in the sector - drug distributors Sopharma Trading and Phoenix Pharma - were past the BGN 1 billion (EUR 511 million) mark in revenues for the first time.
Purchases of medicines and food supplements by pharmacies and hospitals in Bulgaria reached BGN 5.4 billion in 2022, up 9.7% compared with the previous year, according to data from international analysts IQVIA. There is no analysis yet of how inflation is affecting drug prices, but IQVIA's research suggests that the rise in prices is outpacing that in the number of packs sold, meaning there is an increase in the price of drugs.
Merchants on top
Traditionally, pharmaceutical wholesalers have been at the top of the rankings, with Sopharma Trading the consistent leader for more than 10 years. According to Ventsislav Marinov, CEO of Sopharma Trading, the significant investments made during the year in the logistics chain are the basis for the revenue growth, which is above the market average.
"We have completed several major projects related to the utilization of our warehouses, integration with our SOpharmacy chain of pharmacies and the introduction of the latest generation forecasting and transport planning and management systems. As a cumulative result, we delivered 1.8 million orders to our pharmacy and hospital market customers in 2022, up approximately 13% on the previous year. Our international expansion in Serbia continued with a complete restructuring of our operations, with positive results already visible in the first quarter of 2023. Very soon we will open a new integrated warehouse in Serbia," Marinov says.
The only foreign investor in the wholesale of pharmaceuticals, German distributor Phoenix Pharma, comes second in the ranking with revenues of over BGN 1 billion in 2022, marking growth of 9.7% year-on-year, just above market average.
Source: https://kinsights.capital.bg/business/2024/02/05/4584271_the_biggest_pharmaceutical_companies_a_duo_joins_the/