Skip to main content

Emerging Rest of World

In the Emerging Rest of World regions, sales increased 16% (+20% reported) to $4,273 million for the full year (2007: $3,557 million), accounting for nearly 63% of total sales growth outside the US. Sales in Emerging Europe were up 10% (+18% reported) to $1,215 million (2007: $1,028 million). Sales in China increased 31% (+43% reported) to $627 million (2007: $437 million) and sales in Emerging Asia Pacific increased 10% (+7% reported) to $802 million (2007: $749 million).

As the pharmaceutical markets in Asia Pacific, Latin America and elsewhere develop, reforms in pricing and reimbursement will inevitably follow. As these markets become more important to our business, we have to consider carefully such factors when we develop brands. In many of the major markets, such as China, Brazil and Mexico, the patient pays directly for prescription medicines, and this will be an increasingly important issue for our business. Other growing markets, such as South Korea and Turkey are seeing more direct government intervention in pricing and reimbursement, more in line with the systems in Europe, Canada and Australia.

EMERGING EUROPE

Russia continued to enjoy strong sales growth driven by Symbicort, Merrem and Crestor in 2008. Our business in Romania performed particularly well, almost doubling its size, primarily driven by Seroquel, Nexium and Crestor. Our continued expansion included the establishment of a local marketing presence in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

CHINA

In China, in line with our growth and expansion strategy of the past four years, we have continued to build our presence and sales (including Hong Kong) were up 31% (+43% reported) to $627 million (2007: $437 million). We are the largest multinational pharmaceutical company in the prescription market in China, as surveyed by the Hong Kong Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, with a growth rate for prescription sales of 28.8% (+40.2% reported). Our investment in China increased with further growth in the number of sales representatives, and continued to support our innovation discovery research centre in Shanghai and our several external collaborations, including a new clinical pharmacology unit in Peking University and a translational science laboratory in Guangdong Province People’s Hospital.

EMERGING ASIA PACIFIC

In the rest of the Emerging Asia Pacific region, overall sales were up 10% (+7% reported) to $802 million (2007: $749 million) by achieving strong growth in India, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, where market dynamics continue to be positive.

LATIN AMERICA

Latin America enjoyed strong sales performance up 18% (+22% reported) to $1,159 million (2007: $947 million), mainly driven by Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Central America and the Caribbean. As a result, our market share grew to 3% in the prescription market, improving our position from tenth to eighth in the prescription market ranking.

This reflects the investment made to develop our key products in fast-growing markets. Atacand, Crestor, Nexium, Seroquel and Symbicort all showed strong performance with overall sales up 33% (+38% reported) to $516 million (2007: $372 million). Nexium is our best selling prescription product in Latin America with overall sales up 25% (+28% reported) to $185 million (2007: $144 million) and the fifth best selling prescription product in the Latin American market. Crestor is now our second best selling prescription product with overall sales up 46% (+52% reported) to $128 million (2007: $84 million) and is the eleventh best selling prescription product in the Latin American market.

Our top three largest markets in the region are now Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela. Brazil sales were up 21% (+33% reported) to $440 million (2007: $330 million), Mexico sales were up 6% (+6% reported) to $353 million (2007: $334 million) and Venezuela sales were up 37% (+37% reported) to $142 million (2007: $103 million).

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

In 2008, the region again delivered a very strong double-digit growth, driven mainly by Atacand, Crestor, Seroquel and Symbicort, with particularly good performances in Gulf States, Levant, Egypt, South Africa and Maghreb. We have recently established a new marketing company in Israel as part of our investment plan in the region.

Back to the top

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Annual Report coverOur report is available to download in English or Swedish

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate Responsibility coverFind out more about our commitment to responsible business

GLOSSARY

Abbreviations/expressions and their meanings, when used on this website

FEEDBACK

Your opinions and comments are very important to us