Analysis of the Ukrainian market of medicines for gastrointestinal disorders treatment

Olha V. Buriak¹, Ievgenii V. Gladukh¹*, Maryna V. Podgaina², Volodymyr V. Rudenko³

¹Department of Technologies of Pharmaceutical Preparations, National Pharmaceutical University, Kharkov, Ukraine, ²Department of Organization and Economics of Pharmacy, National University of Pharmacy, Kharkov, Ukraine, ³Department of Military Pharmacy, Ukrainian Military Medical Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine.

ABSTRACT

Marketing research of medicinal products of the Silicone group (ATC code - A03A X13) for the treatment of gastrointestinal tract diseases has been carried out. Based on the results of the analysis of the pharmaceutical market, a sufficient number of registered drugs have been determined, among which drugs of Ukrainian origin insignificantly dominate. It has been established that 100% of registered silicone drugs are represented in the wholesale market. Structural analysis of dosage forms has shown a significant dominance of silicones in the form of oral drops (33% among 5 dosage forms of silicones). Evaluation of the economic availability of silicones within each dosage form has made it possible to state that the lowest DDD cost of silicone drugs corresponded to the form of chewable tablets, the highest - to oral suspension.

Keywords: simethicone, pharmaceutical market, availability of medicinal products

Structural analysis of the sample of drugs under study shows that the majority of silicones in the wholesale market are of domestic production - 10 out of 18, or more than 55% of the sample. Figure 3 presents the distribution of domestic silicone manufacturers by the number of drugs represented in the wholesale pharmaceutical market of Ukraine as of March 2020.

Figure 3. Distribution of domestic silicone manufacturers by the number of drugs represented on the wholesale pharmaceutical market of Ukraine as of March 2020

It was found that the largest number of silicone products in the domestic wholesale market corresponded to Pharmaceutical Company "Zdorovya" )50% of all drugs of domestic production(, 20% of the market was occupied by drugs of "Kusum Pharm" and Pharmaceutical firm «Verteks», and 10% by medicines of Kyiv Vitamin Plant. Among foreign manufacturers, the largest share of medicines in the domestic wholesale silicone market was occupied by the company "Berlin Chemie" (Germany) (more than 60%); 12.5% of imported drugs were for other companies (Figure 4).

In general, the leaders of foreign and domestic segments (Berlin Chemie and Pharmaceutical company "Zdorovye" respectively) in the proposition of domestic and imported silicones in the wholesale pharmaceutical market occupied the same market share of silicones - slightly less than 30%. That is, it is desirable to increase the number of domestic drugs, which will facilitate the availability of silicones for the population.

Figure 4. Distribution of foreign producers of silicones by the number of drugs (including DF) in the wholesale pharmaceutical market of Ukraine (March 2020)

Given the feasibility of the development of domestic drugs of the "silicones" group, it may be interesting to analyze the dosage forms of drugs of this group, which are presented on the wholesale market as of March 2020.

Figure 5. The results of the analysis of the domestic wholesale market of silicones by dosage form (March 2020).

The results of the analysis of the wholesale market of silicones by dosage form are presented in Figure 5. It was found that in general preparations of silicones are represented by six dosage forms, including liquid - oral drops and oral suspension, hard-soft capsules, chewable tablets, and coated tablets. The number of hard and liquid dosage forms was the same (8 names). At the same time, the largest number of silicones is presented in the form of oral drops (33% of the total number of silicones in the domestic wholesale market), followed by soft capsules (28%), and coated tablets (17%).

One of the important indicators of the affordability of drugs for the patient and the health care system as a whole is the price. Therefore, the next stage of the study was the analysis of drug prices for INN "Silicone", which are presented on the wholesale market as of March 2020. The data were obtained from the online press lists of the weekly "Pharmacy" by the analytical company "Morion".

Table 1 shows the minimum and maximum purchase prices for drugs offered by distributors for the study period. To properly compare the cost of medicines, we calculated the average purchase price. However, differences in the number of units of the active substance in each package of drugs do not allow for an equilibrium comparison of prices, so the next step was to determine the cost of the daily defined dose (DDD) - DDD of A03AX13, Silicones that is 0.5 g [https://www.whocc.no/atc_ddd_index/?code=A03AX1].

We have ranked medicines within each of the dosage forms; it was found that the average purchase price of the defined daily dose is the lowest for silicones in the form of chewable tablets - 9.64 UAH. This value may be due to the fact that in this DF is presented only by domestic manufacturers, which significantly increases its economic affordability. The most expensive of all drugs were oral suspension, with the average purchase price of DDD - 31.43 UAH.

The performed structural analysis of the average purchase price of the DDD within each dosage form can be used in the future by manufacturers of new silicone products to form a competitive price in this segment of the domestic pharmaceutical market.

Conclusion

In general, the results of the analysis of the domestic pharmaceutical market of medicines for INN "Silicone" have identified a sufficient number of registered drugs, among which insignificantly dominate domestically produced drugs. It was established that 100% of the registered medicines of the silicone group are represented in the wholesale market. Structural analysis of dosage forms showed a significant dominance of silicones in the form of oral drops (33% among 5 DF of silicones). Evaluation of the economic availability of silicones within each DF has allowed us to state that the lowest cost of silicones DDD corresponded to the chewable tablets, and the highest cost to oral suspension.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that there is no conflict of interest among the authors.

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