The European Pharmaceutical Wholesale Industry: - phagro

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The European Pharmaceutical Wholesale Industry
The excessively high number of warehouses in Italy consequently results in small
areas to be supplied by one warehouse.
National full-line wholesalers can only perform their task using
a tight net of 1,458 up-to-date distribution centres, on average
(EU-22) covering a range of 9,679 sq km each.
Discrepancies in the range of wholesalers’ warehouses in different countries are
again the result of many factors, like historically grown structures, geographical
facts and different levels of market concentration.
Figure 31: Range per full-line Wholesalers’ Warehouse in sq km, 2004
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
13,838
13,601
10,571
8,683
6,921
6,709
EU-22 average
EU-15 average
IPF Institute for Pharmaeconomic Research
10,811
5,932
GER UK ESP FR NL AUT IT
Source: GIRP data, IPF research
9,679
The range of warehouses is an indicator measuring the wholesale industry’s ability
to fulfill its function to bridge distances. By relating the number of operating sites
to the number of retail pharmacies the wholesale industry’s level of coverage can
be determined. The results show that in Austria one warehouse on average serves
94 pharmacies whereas 805 pharmacies are supplied by one full-line wholesaler’s
warehouse in Germany.
In the EU-22 (2004), one warehouse on average serves 329
retail pharmacies, reaching 1.1 million patients each.
From a methodological angle it is necessary to mention that these average values
not truly reflect reality. For instance, no distinctions between rural and municipal
areas are made, therefore disregarding the fact that wholesalers’ operating areas
measured in square kilometers are larger in the country than in cities. On the
other hand, the number of patients served by one warehouse is higher in densely
populated areas than in the country. Another fact not displayed in the average