Production at full capacity – pharmaceutical industry benefits from wave of illnesses

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – Masks, lockdowns, spacing rules: In the first Corona years, the cold and flu season in Germany went much more smoothly than usual. This pleasant effect of the Corona measures was to the detriment of many pharmaceutical companies, which did meager business with over-the-counter drugs during the pandemic. In recent months, however, the situation has completely turned around: with an unusually large number of people being ravaged by illness, business in over-the-counter cold remedies picked up rapidly. This is shown by new industry data and a dpa survey of pharmaceutical companies. Production there is running at full speed.

The Hessian pharmaceutical company Stada, for example, reported a “very pronounced cold season” that had started earlier than usual. It said sales of cold products in Germany had increased by almost half in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared with the previous year. It said it observed increased demand in almost all areas of its over-the-counter medicines portfolio, but especially for cold remedies such as Grippostad and Silomat. Production of nasal sprays, for example, was significantly increased in the short term.

The pharmaceutical group Teva, to which Ratiopharm from Ulm belongs, is registering immense demand for pain products. “Of Ratiopharm’s paracetamol solution, we sold more than double the volume of the previous year in 2022.” In the final quarter, demand for the painkiller paracetamol-Ratiopharm rose by a quarter and for Ibu-Ratiopharm by about a third, Teva Germany said. Demand for cough expectorants in the market grew by more than half and for flu preparations by more than a third, he said.

Pohl-Boskamp from Schleswig-Holstein, known for the cold remedy Gelomyrtol, expressed a similar view. If the case numbers for respiratory infections had been at a low level in the winter of 2021, 2022 had been quite different. The medium-sized company felt an unexpectedly high demand for products against bronchitis, voice complaints and sore throats, for example. “We already saw a sharp increase in demand for our Gelo products over the summer of last year, and in the fourth quarter up to Christmas it was once again well above all the reference values of previous years.”

Over-the-counter medicines are a billion-dollar business for the pharmaceutical sector, even though many corporations have withdrawn from the business with them. In 2022, German pharmacies generated sales of a good 7.7 billion euros with over-the-counter medicines, which include common cold remedies. This is shown by new data from the German Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (BAH). Substantially more proceeds were made in the pharmacies with prescription medicines (61.7 billion). However, sales of over-the-counter medicines grew more strongly by 11.5 percent following the Corona low.

This was also felt by Bayer. Last year, he said, there was increased demand for some over-the-counter medicines in Germany, especially cold remedies. “We have strengthened our production for cold remedies accordingly,” the DAX company said.

Haleon, which emerged from a spin-off of British pharmaceutical group GSK’s over-the-counter medicines, also posted strong business. Sales of nasal sprays and drops from the Otriven product family were around 45 percent up on the previous year in the fourth quarter. The third quarter was even better, he said.

Health insurers had registered unusually high levels of employee absenteeism in 2022. On average, employees missed nearly 20 days of work due to illness, according to DAK Gesundheit – a good five days more than in 2021. On each day of the year, an average of 55 out of every 1,000 employees were on sick leave, a record since the analysis began 25 years ago. Most of the absences were due to respiratory illnesses such as colds and bronchitis, which increased dramatically.

Techniker Krankenkasse had also reported much more sick leave among employees. Waves of colds at atypical times with unusually high levels, such as in July and October, played a major role. And the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) observed an unusually high number of acute respiratory illnesses in the fall and early winter months of 2022.

In view of the waves of illness, children’s clinics were overloaded, and fever fluids for children became scarce. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had announced that reforms in the reimbursement system would create incentives for pharmaceutical companies to strengthen production.

The high demand for drugs to treat respiratory diseases is putting pressure on the pharmaceutical industry. “We are producing at full capacity,” Teva Germany said. In addition, the company said it is in the process of building up its workforce. Because of expiration dates, however, some drugs could only be produced in stock to a limited extent.

Companies had not expected the disease wave to be so severe. After the two Corona winters, everyone in the industry was cautious about inventory and production, said Gelomyrtol manufacturer Pohl-Boskamp. “The severity of the cold wave and respiratory illnesses probably took all producers by surprise.”/als/DP/mis

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