Romania has a comprehensive universal health care system, which covers up medical examinations, any surgical interventions and any post-operator medical care, but also provides free or subsidized medicine for a range of diseases.

The pharmaceutical supply chain increased markedly in the past decade across all segments, contributing with over 1% to GDP formation (2010).The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most highly regulated industries in the world, with prices of prescription based medicines being set by the public authorities. Although an important number of drug producers are present on the Romanian market (184), the first 10 largest drug manufacturers by the volume of drugs sold control almost 60% of the market. Also, the pharmaceutical industry in Romania is the 23rd largest contributor to the governments’ tax revenues from a total of 103 economic sectors.

European comparisons highlight that the Romanian companies from the pharma industry act in an environment with average claim collection period considerably higher as other countries. The official payment terms for RX drugs are 210 days, however in practice payment terms have exceeded 300 days throughout 2011.

Chart 1: Overview of the Romanian pharmaceutical supply chain (2010)

Chart 2: Top 10 drug producers by the value of drugs sold on the Romanian market

Chart 3: Volume of drugs sold (thousand units)

Chart 4: Structure of drug sales by therapeutic areas (%), 12 month ending June 2011

Chart 5: Parallel exports in Romania vs parallel imports in developed EU countries (% domestic pharmacy sales)

Chart 6: Labor productivity (value added/no of employees, RON)

Chart 7: Dynamics of total healthcare expenditure (% of GDP) between 1995 and 2009

Chart 8: Structure of the fiscal contribution of the pharma industry (2010)

Sources:

Expert Forum (EFOR) and Mind Research&Rating (MRR) - Income and expenditure of the healthcare system

Institute of Economic Forecasting - Pharmaceutical Industry in Romania