Research and Markets: Big Opportunities for OTC Self-Medication of Pain Relief Products in Europe

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18186) has announced the addition of The Future for Pain Relief in Self-medication in Europe 2005 edition to their offering.

Dublin (PRWEB) May 30, 2005 -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18186) has announced the addition of The Future for Pain Relief in Self-medication in Europe 2005 edition to their offering.

Overall, the European pain relief market as measured in the six major markets France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK, is entering a period of maturity. This is presenting a challenge to manufacturers. Yet, though there are clear threats emerging, there remains considerable scope for companies to seek out growth strategies for individual brands.

While the market (as defined in the study) is made up medicinal products not requiring a doctor's prescription, a significant proportion of European sales are generated through prescription business. Yet, this hitherto lucrative sector of the market is under threat. Much of Europe no longer reimburses prescriptions for pain relievers and those countries that do are both encouraging generic substitution and forcing prices down. Hence the prescription sector for pain relievers is declining in most European markets.

Conversely, OTC self-medication of pain relief products in Europe provides a growth opportunity. While Poland and Italy are expected to show the strongest growth for pain relief products overall, Germany and France offer very weak growth prospects. The UK and Spain are both expected to show fairly modest growth to 2010. Market growth for all sub-categories is expected to be lower in the 2005 to 2010 period than for the 1999 to 2004.

The most attractive growth sub-categories are migraine, period pain and mouth pain. Even so, these are the smallest categories. Systemic muscle and joint pain relief is expected to show the least attractiveness with very low growth expectations. This sub-category is coming under increasing competition from nutritional products from health food stores and drugstores. Topical pain relief is also likely to show relatively flat growth. The largest category, general pain analgesics, will grow by less than 2% a year based on current trends.

Around 2% of the European market for non-prescription pain relief products is made up by brands launched since 1999. This said, Novartis' topical diclofenac brand Voltaren was switched from prescription only between 1996 and 1999. Also, Aleve, originally launched by Roche, was the first naproxen based systemic switch in Europe. First launched in the Netherlands in 1997 and then gradually rolled out across Europe - Italy in1998, Belgium and Poland in 2000 and Austria and Germany in 2002.

Pain relief offers considerable scope for brands to grow through strategic line extensions, especially general pain relief analgesics.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18186

Laura Wood
Senior Manager
Research and Markets
press@researchandmarkets.com
Fax: +353 1 4100 980

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