Research and Markets: Lebanon Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q2 2010

DUBLIN--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/758158/lebanon_pharmaceut) has
announced the addition of the "Lebanon Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q2
2010" report to their offering.

Lebanon 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 Lebanon's pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.

The total pharmaceutical market in Lebanon was worth US$519mn in 2009 and took
up 1.71% of GDP, with per-capita spending on medicines at US$123.4. Prescription
drug spending was US$460mn, or 89.7% of the total market. Prescription medicines
expenditure is forecast to increase as a proportion of the total market,
highlighting a rising trend for healthcare usage.

While this can be down to population growth alone, we also believe that access
to healthcare services is widening. Patented medicines contributed to 74.8% of
the prescription drug market and 67% of the total pharmaceutical sector.
Although generic drugs will continue to feature as a small proportion of all
pharmaceutical spending, their proportion of the prescription market will rise
from 25.2% in 2009 to 30.3% by 2014.

Pharmaceutical industry representatives in Lebanon have announced that drug
packaging will be redesigned to enable easy confirmation of product
authenticity. The move is part of an effort to address the counterfeit medicines
that are infiltrating the country. This follows a region-wide crackdown on
counterfeit pharmaceuticals through similar measures, with better regulatory
provisions promoted as the most effective measure.

The Order of Pharmacists (OOP) in Lebanon has stated that drug packaging can
easily be forged and that new hologram or high-tech identification tags are to
be added to medicine labels to make fakes easier to detect. Public enlightenment
campaigns have also been underlined as one of the strategies that will deter
further purchases and lower demand for these drugs.

The association is also suggesting that pharmacists be positioned at customs and
within hospitals to ensure that fake medicines are not unwittingly sold within
the national and private healthcare system. Testing laboratories should also be
established to ensure that seizures or closures of suspected illegal outlets can
be supported with evidence. Imports could also be tested for bioequivalence in
this manner, alleviating the reliance on US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-
or European Medicines Agency (EMEA)-derived medicines to ensure product safety.

Companies Mentioned:

* Chalhoub Pharmaceuticals (CHAPHA)
* Alfa Laboratories
* Algorithm
* Codipha
* Pfizer
* Novartis
* Merck & Co
* Johnson & Johnson
* Sanofi-Aventis
* GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
* Abbott Laboratories

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/758158/lebanon_pharmaceut

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager,
press@researchandmarkets.com
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

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