Interview 

Generics sales have been increasing annualy. According to IMS Health data, in the first semester of 2007, 740.4 million units of this kind of medicine were traded, which represents 5% growth in comparison with the same period last year.

During a conversation with Top Team, the president of Pró-Genéricos, Odinir Finotti, analyzed this good phase of generics and commented about Anvisa´s recent authorization to manufacture generic contraceptives and hormones. Follow it below:

Top Team: Did the coming of generics to Brazil favor the national laboratories? 

Odinir Finotti: It favored not only the national laboratories but also any other company that bet on this segment. Today, what you see is that the national laboratories that believed in the generics in the first moment are the ones with better performance. The generics certainly benefited more these companies.

Top Team: In some European countries, like Germany, nearly 30% of the market is led by generics. What about this number in Brazil? Is it expected to reach 30%?

Odinir Finotti: In Brazil, generics own 15% of the market in units. We believe and bet that within a year this number will reach 20%. Now, this could be faster if we had, like in European countries, a system of refund, in which the medicament is paid by the government that imposes the use of generics. In Brazil, on the other hand, there isn´t such mechanism of pressure because the government does not entirely participate in this regulating market. This way, our development gets harder to be achieved.

Top Team: Within this context, is there space for foreign manufacturers?

Odinir Finotti: The market of generics is not consolidated yet. Therefore, there is space for any company that intends to work with this kind of medicine. Obviously, the laboratories that have been part of this market since the beginning gained space and were able to establish closer links between generics and their brand names. As a consequence, having a new player in this market today is much harder than five years ago. However, the space continues, for sure.

Top Team: Cinfa, the biggest generics manufacturer from Spain came into Brazil and gave up working in this market. Was it a unique case?

Odinir Finotti: No, it wasn´t. We also had Apotex case, a company from Canada, that decided to come into the Brazilian market due to good conditions offered in the implementation of generics when the laboratories could register generics by using other countries´ dossier requirements. From the moment the Brazilian legislation started to grow and to demand the presentation of studies done in Brazil as a local reference, it became more difficult for companies to work here and some understood that at that moment, Brazil was not a strategic country and decided to leave the market.

Top Team: ANVISA has recently authorized generic production of oral contraceptives & hormones. What does such authorization represent?

Odinir Finotti: Who wins with such decision is the population who will have one more option. It was an important approval and it represents evolution. The generic production in Brazil is absolutely new and all care has been taken to produce safe medicines with the same efficacy of brand medicine and at least 55% cheaper.

Top Team: Does the government stimulate the production of generics?

Odinir Finotti: The government supports the production of generics because they were created to improve the people´s access to medicines.

We have recently talked to the Minister of Health and he showed some interest in increasing participation of generics. However, such support could be more explicit.

Top Team: How should this explicit support be?

Odinir Finotti: The government can, within public health policies, give better support to generics in purchases and bids by spreading more information to consumers.