Pharmaceutical wholesaling in Slovenia is a strictly regulated activity and a key link between manufacturers and healthcare providers. This master’s thesis analyses the Slovenian margin regulation system and compares it with selected European countries, focusing on the impact of different models on wholesalers’ theoretical revenue and changes in prices and market structure.
The analysis was conducted on a sample of 2450 prescription medicines that were dispensed in 2024 and had a publicly available price. For each medicine, the manufacturer price was calculated and used as the basis for calculating the theoretical wholesale revenue according to the defined margin calculation methods for the included countries. The results show that Slovenia has the lowest theoretical wholesale revenue (27 million €) among all compared countries, demonstrating the strictest margin regulation system. Although Slovenia has a relatively high fixed fee (0,50 €), the extremely low variable margin component (1,1 % PEC) and the low upper limit (27,50 €) do not compensate for the costs of higher-priced medicines.
Countries ranked by wholesale revenue from highest to lowest are as follows: Croatia with 56,6 million € due to an exceptionally high cap (4.000 €), Austria with 51,7 million € due to a systematic multi-tier distribution of shares and minimum pharmacy revenues, Germany with 48,9 million € due to a high fixed component, the PEC share and a cap, France with 43,9 million € for similar reasons as Germany and due to an additional cold-chain allowance, Italy with 40,4 million € due to the absence of a cap and a higher wholesale share for generic medicines, Hungary with 37,9 million € due to the absence of a cap and minimum revenues in the lowest price groups, and Spain with 31 million €, where margin calculation focuses on mid-priced medicines, which also represent the most frequently dispensed group.
As the method for calculating wholesale margins in Slovenia has remained uniform since 2012, and wholesale revenues are directly dependent on medicine prices, the analysis, in addition to comparing revenues between countries, also included a time-series examination of market developments. This comprised two analyses focused on price changes over time. The first was an annual analysis of real market movements between 2015 and 2024, while the second was a retrospective analysis in which publicly available prices from each year since 2012 were projected onto medicines dispensed in 2024. The time-series analysis confirmed a pronounced trend toward a market shift to more expensive, innovative therapies, reflected in rising average medicine prices and an increasing share of high-priced medicines on the market.
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