How difficult it is to promote innovative products here in the Philippines?
Innovative products are not difficult to promote in the Philippines. The Philippines is a pure out of pocket market, where there is no one entity dictating the purchases, which is good and bad at the same time. For multinationals it is good because it is free pricing. What drives the business is the promotion to the doctors, who are the prescribers of the medicines. Unlike other countries where it is generally driven by tenders, there is no big purchaser here in the Philippines – the government does not have any budget for healthcare. They do purchase medicines but marginally, less than 5% of the total industry sales. However, there are two dominant monopolies in the Philippines. One of them is Zuellig Pharma, the only pharmaceutical distributor – this is something that we need to manage as a manufacturer. The second is represented by a big retail chain, Mercury, which represents on average 40 to 60% of the business of the entire pharmaceutical industry – of the 120 billion pesos annua
