Pharmaceutical industry
Back to list of industries
NACE 2002 - 24.4 Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals and botanical products
The production of pharmaceuticals offers very good prospects over the long term. In addition to the expected demographic development in the Czech Republic (an increase in the number of elderly people in the population resulting in greater demand for pharmaceuticals), there is a general trend of growing consumption of drugs in the population. This trend is not likely to stop in the following years. Experts in the pharmaceuticals market (and the nutritional supplements market) point to a still low volume (financial) of pharmaceuticals per capita in the CR, and they forecast a 6% growth in the global market in the following years. Czech producers should continue to profit from this.
In terms of the labour market, this is a relatively attractive industry with higher qualification requirements and value added. It should not be affected by the trend of moving to low-cost countries. The pharmaceutical industry is already investing large amounts of money in research and development. In the upcoming years this component of the value chain will grow in importance even further, as will the pressure for speed and effectiveness of placing new products in the market. If companies in the industry are to be successful in this respect, they will have to invest much more in sales and marketing (it will be necessary to communicate more with patients, not only physicians), and in interconnecting the skills in these areas with findings generated by research and development. The productivity of R & D in the industry is very low at the moment. It will be of special importance for workers in the pharmaceutical industry to pursue more intensive cooperation with foreign partners and research units at universities in the development of new products. Moreover, there will be growing requirements for language and socio-cultural competencies. Finally, new markets in Eastern Europe and Asia are opening up for pharmaceutical companies, and entering them will require better management, organisational and process skills.
