Pharmaceutical Market May Slow with Economy, Analyst Says
High purity water is a critical ingredient in the manufacturing process of life-saving drugs. The continuing demand for high quality water is the single biggest driver for the growth of the water treatment systems market segment in the pharmaceutical sector. Frost & Sullivan's European Environment Research Analyst, Karthikeyan Ravikumar, foresees "that the water and wastewater management market in the European pharmaceutical industry has exciting opportunities to offer particularly in the water treatment segment with the overall market experiencing high growth rates."
With Europe as the second largest pharmaceutical manufacturing market around, it has emerged as a very lucrative high-value opportunity to stakeholders in the water industry. Some of the leading players have made significant investments on research and development as well as positioning themselves as providers of specialist solutions for the pharmaceutical sectors. These investments are channelled to enhance innovative water and wastewater treatment solutions, test and improve existing technologies to meet the current and expected changes to the European Pharmacopoeia's water standards.
The European pharmaceutical market is expected to showcase an annual growth rate of around 8-10 percent in the coming years and this is expected to reflect in a steady increase in the need for effective and efficient water as well as wastewater treatment technologies and services.
Furthermore, the current economic situation may open new and interesting opportunities in Southern and Eastern Europe. Ravikumar reports that "with the economic slowdown triggered from the United States of America spreading to other regions of the globe, the pharmaceutical industries in Europe may take a cautious stand of wait-and-watch policy." This cautious stand could have an impact on the water and wastewater management needs of pharmaceutical industries. In this period of economic crunch, pharmaceutical companies have indicated an increased interest in moving South and East of Europe, to tap into relatively low production and operational costs.
Frost & Sullivan is in the process of completing a "Snapshot Study on Water & Wastewater Treatment in the European Pharmaceutical Industry." In the meantime, if you are interested in receiving more information on the European Water & Wastewater Treatment Markets, please send an e-mail to Chiara Carella,corporate communications at chiara.carella@frost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, e-mail address, city and country. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.