The global pharmaceutical industry is currently worth more than two trillion US dollars with constantly growing single-digit growth prospects for the coming years.

The number one for the global pharmaceutical industry is the United States (28% of total global turnover), the European Union is second together – all Member States (15%) and Japan is third, with a slightly lower result than the EU – 12%. The first three places in the ranking, which were described above, are responsible for nearly 55% of the total value of pharmaceutical sales in the world (1).

As the analysts of the pharmaceutical industry estimate, the coming years will be directly associated with the development of economies known as developing markets (the so-called pharmerging markets). Their characteristic feature is the tendency to spend more and more on health care. As is also mentioned, China will boast the largest share in this group. The two most anticipated or anticipated trends for the development of the industry are the expansion of the generic drug market and the use of the rapidly growing field of biotechnology as the basis for the production or research on innovative drugs.

Pursuant to subsequent amended amendments to the Pharmaceutical Law, which have been consecutive for almost eighteen years, changes in economic issues have been noted on the pharmaceutical market. They affect both macro and microeconomic environments.

The purpose of the work is to analyze economic changes occurring on the Polish pharmaceutical market in relation to successively introduced legislative changes regulating the shape of this branch of the economy.

The materials that were used to perform the analysis are legal acts regulating pharmaceutical law, reports and economic brochures on the subject of the pharmaceutical market.

An analysis of foreign and domestic literature was described describing the economic changes in the Polish pharmaceutical market.

The main aspects analyzed are the development of the wholesale market, retail sales, drug demand, online sales and the reverse distribution chain (2).

Despite significant changes that were a response to specific needs or problems occurring in the health care sector, due to the characteristics of this part of social policy, in place of the existing complications, new ones were created.

The years 2004-2005, and the time immediately preceding the period in question, i.e. 2003, mainly thanks to Poland’s accession to the European Union, were defined as those that give potentially great opportunities for further development to the domestic pharmaceutical market. These years, in specialist literature, are called the time devoted to seeking the correct shape of this particular branch of the economy – legal and economic – based on the experience of other European countries (3). An equally important issue for this large one, in the context of the country’s entry into the Community framework, was to determine the actual market structure. In relation to the European Commission’s considerations at the time, the priority of decision-makers from among those directly related to Polish drug policy became the selection of priority drug groups from the then adopted sixteen categories – taking into account their medicinal properties/production procedures (4). However, despite the regulations imposed from above, the executive power itself, characteristic of the European community, uses market terms in terms of geography based on the differences in legal regulations, system differences and the method of refinancing healthcare in individual countries. Since then, the Polish pharmaceutical sector has been implementing its activities in four basic branches: sales from the producer, pre-wholesale, wholesale, to the hospital market and pharmacy sales.

The Polish market, compared to the domestic market in 2001, when the main act dealing with the modern outline of pharmaceutical law was introduced, recorded a continuous increase reaching at the beginning of 2012 the value of PLN 22.3 billion (in 2004 it was 13.2 billion) (5).

At the end of 2017, the Polish pharmaceutical market once again recorded a significant increase in value and thus jumped over the threshold of PLN 38 billion. The most important factor in this growth was the hospital pharmacy segment. It accounted for slightly over 15% of the total market value, but what is worth mentioning is its share – 25%, in total appreciation of value.

The changes discussed above are primarily the consequences of the continuous development of the drug programs and chemotherapy therapies sector, which are being introduced with newer, more often innovative drugs with increasing therapeutic costs. To sum up, the overall rate of total increase in the market value of the hospital pharmacy sector in 2017 was close to 10% (PLN 560 million more than in 2016).

Pharmacy outlets met with 3.8% dynamics, which also resulted in revenues of nearly PLN 1.2 billion higher than in 2016. The segment of OTC drugs and products – OTC products – was the fastest-earning segment of the pharmaceutical industry. It brought over PLN 723 million. E-pharmacies and online sales, which offer medicines that do not require a prescription issued by white personnel, as in the case of the above parts of the pharmaceutical market, have seen an increase. The final result was over PLN 80 million (6).

It is estimated that this jump was generated by products from two classes: vitamins and minerals (increase by about PLN 15 million) and milk for children (jump by 13 million). The third group that definitely stands out from the first two are cosmetics for women. It achieved more than a twice lower jump in value compared to 2016. This may mainly result from the competition of “non-pharmacy” products available in drugstores or kiosks with a much lower price for one package.

The segment of the pharmaceutical market, which is invariably one of the most profitable, is the segment of reimbursed drugs. Unfortunately, given the increasing restrictions on the part of legislation, this group has been recording a steady decline in the value of sales for several years. Other factors affecting this downward trend are primarily: forced decreases in drug prices for specific limit groups. It may be associated primarily with the possibility of using drug substitutes purchased in pharmacies.

In the years 2004-2016, all drugs that were offered within the country came from several dozen manufacturers – with Polish and foreign capital. However, focusing on the value of drug sales, half of the achieved amount was generated by the ten largest foreign but also domestic producers. As the Azyx report presented at the end of 2006, there were 116 of them in the country. Surprising information also turned out that the first 50 positions on the list of the largest concerns implementing their activities in Poland had nearly 85% of the market. However, looking at the actual level of concentration of this branch of the economy in the years 2004-2006, one can notice its weak concentration. The level of HHI2 (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index) did not exceed 400 points, while (C4)³ – the sum of the joint market share, characteristic for the four largest producers, did not exceed the result of 28%.