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Tamro Finland
- In January–December 2005, the aggregate
pharmaceuticals sales amounted to EUR 1,756 million
in PPP, a 7% rise on the previous year’s figures.
- Tamro Finland’s net sales for the accounting
year in 2005/2006 amounted to EUR 1,039 million,
up 6% from the previous 13-month financial year.
Markets and operating environment
The Finnish pharmaceuticals market continued to grow
during 2005, in spite of dropping prices due to the
re-evaluation of prices by the Pharmaceuticals Pricing
Board and intensified generic competition.
During January–December 2005, the sales of
Rx medicines, which made up 88% of human pharmaceutical
sales, amounted to EUR 1,537 million in PPP, up by
6.2% from the previous year’s figures. The sales
of OTC medicines increased by 13.4%, to EUR 201 million
in PPP, according to the figures from Finnish Pharmaceutical
Data Ltd (SLD).
Sales of OTC medicines jumped by 38% in the fourth
quarter of 2005 compared with the same quarter in
the previous year, partly due to announced changes
in the rebates policy. The Finnish Competition Authority
declared that individual rebates given by medical
companies to pharmacies are unlawful. The sales of
prescription medicines increased only moderately,
by 2.1%, owing to the 5% wholesale price cut implemented
on all reimbursable medicines. These cuts came into
effect on 1 January 2006.
The best-selling medicines in 2005 were Lipitor
(cholesterol reducer, Pfizer), Zyprexa (anti-psychotic,
Lilly), Seretide (anti-asthmatic, GSK), Norvasc (calcium
antagonist, PFZ), Risperdal (anti-psychotic, Janssen-Cilag),
Seroquel (anti-psychotic, AstraZeneca), Burana (anti-inflammatory,
Orion) and Somac (proton pump inhibitor, Pfizer).
Financial performance and operations
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2005/2006
(12 months)
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2004/2005
(13 months)
|
Change |
| Net sales, EUR million |
1,039 |
984 |
6% |
| Employees, average |
332 |
320 |
4% |
Tamro Finland booked net sales of EUR 1,039 million
in 2005/2006, up 6% from the previous 13-month financial
year. Tamro’s average market share was 57.9%,
up by 4 percentage points year-over-year. The growth
in Tamro’s market share is mainly due to the
new distribution agreement with Sanofi-Aventis.
Tamro Finland celebrated its 110-year
anniversary in 2005 with customer and personnel events.
The company is proud of its heritage and expanding
operations in Tampere, where Tamro was founded in
1895. The distribution centre there was expanded during
2005 to handle the added volume from the Vantaa distribution
centre. Now the Tampere distribution centre handles
Tamro’s distribution in Central and Southern
Finland, and in total about half of all medicines
in Finland.
Personnel
During the financial year, Tamro Finland’s
payroll averaged 332 (320) employees. The number of
employees increased by 4% from the previous year,
mainly due to new jobs created in Tampere.
Outlook for 2005
The sales-day-adjusted growth of the Finnish pharmaceutical
market has been negative at -3% during the first three
months of the year. This exceptional market development
is caused by pharmacy hoarding of medicines at the
end of 2005 due to the prohibition of pharmacy-specific
rebates on medicines. Sales are also impacted by the
5% wholesale price cut on reimbursable medicines.
Compared with other European countries, Finland has
now the lowest wholesale prices along with Greece.
The Finnish pharmaceutical market will remain challenging
during 2006. We expect the full-year growth to be
around 3%. The Finnish government has announced that
the cost of medicine reimbursement should have an
annual growth ceiling of 5% during 2008–2011.
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