Agencia Farmaceutica S.A., Corporacion Impa Doel S.A., Hispomedica SRL and Cefa Central Farmaceutica are among the companies that won contracts last year to supply medicines and pharmaceutical products to public health institutions in the region.
An analysis by CentralAmericaData's Business Intelligence department provides interesting data on the companies that in 2020 were awarded contracts to supply pharmaceutical products and medical supplies to the different Ministries of Health and Social Security entities in Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.
The Social Security Fund tenders the supply, storage, transport and delivery, according to need and on demand, of different types of medicines and controlled substances.
Panama Government Purchase 2021-1-10-0-99-LP-392958:
In the Dominican Republic the supply of 116 different types of medicines is being tendered, which will be required during the months of March, April and May.
Because in this context of new commercial reality the sales of alcohol, fertilizers, soaps, detergents and chemical and pharmaceutical products have increased, the productive activity of the Central American industrial sector has been dynamized.
According to figures from the Bank of Guatemala, during the III Quarter of 2020 the Guatemalan Gross Domestic Product reported -2% year-on-year variation, a behavior that contrasts with the evolution of the manufacturing industry, which for the period in question registered a 3% increase in its production.
The business sector in Guatemala is anticipating an increase in the prices of food and medicines, due to the government's decision to raise the cost of procedures such as the issuance of licenses and health registrations, required to market these products.
By means of Government Agreement 179-2020, which entered into force on December 1, 2020, new fees were imposed for the services of procedures for licenses, registrations and other processes for medicines, laboratories, pharmaceuticals, food products and others.
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala are the Central American markets that during the first half of 2020 and in year-on-year terms, increased their imports of pharmaceutical products.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
In the last few weeks in Central American countries the volume of searches and conversations on the Internet associated with pharmacies began to decrease, a downward trend that continued until the first days of November.
Through a system that monitors in real time the changes in the interests and preferences of consumers in Central American countries, developed by CentralAmericaData, it is possible to project short and long term demand trends, for the different products, sectors and markets that operate in the region.
The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (Costa Rican Social Security Fund) is tendering the supply of interferon beta 1-A of recombinant DNA origin, under the delivery-on-demand modality.
Costa Rican Government Purchase 2020LN-000033-5101:
From January to July 2020, purchases of pharmaceutical products made by Central American countries from Mexican companies totaled $174 million, 7% more than what was reported for the same period in 2019.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
The business sector in Guatemala rejects the measure of the Ministry of Economy, which establishes maximum sales prices to the consumer for certain pharmaceutical products, while the state of disaster decreed by covid-19 lasts.
The Costa Rican Social Security Fund tenders the supply under the modality of delivery on demand of 10 mg hyoscine butylbromide, in its presentation of coated tablets.
Costa Rican Government Purchase 2020ME-000070-5101:
"For this tender it is estimated that 380,000 units of the medicine tendered must be supplied.
Arguing that the health of the nation's inhabitants is a public good and that institutions are required to ensure its conservation and restoration, the government will regulate the prices of several medicines.
From January to March 2020, pharmaceutical product imports in Central America totaled $825 million, with Costa Rica and Guatemala being the markets where purchases increased the most.
Figures from CentralAmericaData's Commercial Intelligence Unit: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
The Fischel Nunciatura drugstore, located near La Sabana Park in San Jose, Costa Rica, is a sales point that is a 15-minute walk away and has a potential market of over 23,000 consumers, 11% of whom are interested in health care issues.
Using the Geomarketing solutions we have developed for our clients, CentralAmericaData's Trade Intelligence team analyzed the environment of some of the main locations of the drugstores in Central America. Below is an extract of the study's findings.
In this context of crisis, El Salvador's pharmaceutical sector is one of the few that managed to increase its exports in the first half of the year, and in some cases production plants have had to work double shifts to meet demand.
The manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals and pharmaceutical botanicals was one of the few sectors that, from January to June 2020, registered a positive variation in the amount of its sales abroad, according to official data from the Central Reserve Bank.