Europe market development

The London-based International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) is the second largest energy futures exchange in the world, listing futures contracts that represent the pricing benchmarks for two-thirds of the world s crude oil and the majority of middle distillate traded in Europe. IPE natural gas futures may also develop into an international benchmark as the European market develops larger sales volume. 

The global market is estimated to be growing at 3-4% with most growth in Asia (especially China) and some growth in North America. The Western European market is maturing, but Eastern Europe is developing. Much of the growth is due to profile for windows and this increased to over 20% by 2002. 

Once the clinical and safely evaluation studies for a new medicinal product have shown it to be safe, effective and of acceptable quality, the pharmaceutical company will usually want to submit a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) or New Drug Application (NDA) to the regulatory authorities. The chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) section will form a major part of the application. For an MAA in Europe, a development pharmaceutics section is required to describe how the product was developed, and to explain the rationale for the selection of the formulation, pack, manufacturing process and specifications. Also required for Europe are expert reports for each of the pharmaceutical, safety and clinical parts of the application. These have to be written by experienced scientists nominated by the pharmaceutical company who have to critically appraise the development programme for the product. The pharmaceutical expert must acknowledge the acceptability of the CMC part of the application. 

A recognition of the breadth of differences in established products is important because the market development effort must comprehend and reflect such differences. For example, a percentage of the output of certain established products is used internally by the producers. Phthalic anhydride is an example of such a product. Most of the producers today utilize some internal production. However, this situation did not exist when phthalic was first made commercially available in this country after World War I. An American patent was announced in September 1916 and three or four U.S. producers initiated some production prior to 1920. Prior supplies of the product had been imported from Europe. By the mid-1920,s the newly developed production process made possible reductions in price from a level of several dollars/ pound to the 20 /lb. range. Large volume applications developed. During the 1930,s the demand came from alkyd resins for the surface... 

In Western Europe the development started much later and last year major decisions were taken which will determine the shape of the future European market. 

A network of market development technical support centers is being established it involves machine manufacturers, high schools, universities, die-casters associations and alloyers. Five centers have been established in Europe. Both ZincCast and DeZign are used to initiate the centers. Their mission is to provide technical assistance and training for die-casters. 

In Europe, the replacement rate of reusable products by single-use products is about 30%. It is expected that this conversion rate will increase as newer and more cost-effective nonwovens which deliver superior performance are developed. Japan, South America and Australia, should behave similarly. The single-use medical product markets in the USA and Europe can be traced to a number of similar market developments. Growing at an almost equal rate, the US market is... 

Markets have developed very differently in different regions. In Europe, products aimed at improving gut health, particularly those containing probiotics, dominate the market. In the USA, there is much wider interest in anti-cancer products and the use of botanicals, while gut health products remain relatively undeveloped. The greater use of dietary supplements in the USA has also influenced market development, with increasing numbers of products being launched that straddle the line between dietary supplements and food products. 

The development of a new drug is both a time-consuming and a cost-intensive process. It takes 12 to 15 years and costs up to 800 million to bring a new drug to the market. As measured by the market capitalization, the pharmaceutical companies play a pivotal role in the global economy. In February 2003 Pfizer was ranked at position five worldwide, with a market capitalization of 163 billion. Ranking third as far as the market capitalization in Europe is concerned was GlaxoSmithKline, with a current value of 101 billion. Novartis was number five in Europe with 82 billion. 

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