Armenia. Attitude of consumers to local medicines in Armenia

Armenian pharmaceutical products are more popular at the beginning of 2011 than they were in 2008. Awareness level on Armenian pharmaceutical products has increased among all main groups of users, i.e. among consumers, physicians and pharmacists.

  1. Sources, where pharmaceutical product users obtain information about Armenian pharmaceutical products, are different. For consumers the main sources of information are pharmacies and word of mouth. The shares of those two sources have increased 2-2.5 times for the past 3 years. For physicians and pharmacists the main sources of information about Armenian pharmaceutical products are producers. Moreover, their level has increased by 1.5 times for the past 3 years. It is obvious that producers nowadays work more intensively in order to spread information about their products. 3 years ago those producers had pointed out importers as very active in spreading information, but nowadays they work with same intensity. Certainly, this is a positive change. The information about pharmaceutical producers is spread among pharmaceutical product users the same way as in the case of their product.
  2. Just like their products, pharmaceutical enterprises themselves have become popular among pharmaceutical product users. Liqvor, Arpimed and Esculap are equally popular among physicians and pharmacists. Pharmatek and Yerevan CPF that were very popular in 2008 have lost their popularity to some point. 
  3. Results of the survey show that increase of awareness level about Armenian pharmaceutical products did not increase the positive attitude of pharmaceutical product users. It is a pity, because the respondents of this survey were more experienced in using pharmaceutical products. There is an impression that the more pharmaceutical product users become familiar with Armenian pharmaceutical products the more they complain and criticize them. There are objective bases for such conclusion. We can remember from the survey of 2008 that among Armenian pharmaceutical products psychotropic pharmaceuticals of Arpimed and the packaging of Esculap were criticized. In 2011 more pharmaceutical products were criticized by physicians and pharmacists. Today, psychotropic products of Arpimed are still criticized among physicians and pharmacists. Both quality features and packaging of those pharmaceutical products are criticized. Packaging of Yerevan CPF, Narimax produced by Vitamax-E were both criticized. This criticism has its negative impact on general popularity of Armenian pharmaceutical products. This is another reason why imported pharmaceutical products are preferred by majority of pharmaceutical product users. The number of pharmaceutical product users, who are able to make a comparison between imported and Armenian pharmaceutical products, in some cases preferring imported ones, in other cases Armenian ones, has increased, which is very positive. However, Armenian pharmaceutical products are still less competitive. 
  4. The advantages of Armenian pharmaceutical products are their relatively cheap prices and their availability, although quality features of pharmaceutical products are more valued by consumers. It means that pharmaceutical products users are ready to pay higher prices in order to obtain more efficient and higher quality pharmaceutical products. Consequently, the further success of Armenian pharmaceutical products will be firstly depending on improving their qualitative features and then with their competitive or cheap prices. 
  5. The survey of 2008 had proved a fact which was not argued by participants of the field. It was physicians’ and pharmacists’ exclusive influence on consumers when buying pharmaceutical products. Many physicians and pharmacists overuse this influence by cooperating with suppliers (importers and producers). In fact, it was mentioned that this method is used by importers. According to this year’s survey, we can say that three years later it is applied even more intensively. First of all consumers have become more dependent on physicians’ and pharmacists’ opinion. Second, it is possible that in cooperation chain of suppliers-physicians or pharmacists, Armenian pharmaceutical enterprises are as active as importers. 
  6. The survey of 9 Armenian pharmaceutical enterprises shows that during the period of 2008-2011 they have gone through positive changes, such as export increase, centralization of export markets and expand of export volumes, increase of employees, expand of marketing budgets. We should once again remind that the mentioned period was critical for all branches of Armenian economy. Awareness of consumers towards Armenian pharmaceutical products has increased during the past three years, but their preferences have not changed, and they still prefer imported pharmaceutical products. 
  7. Today, Armenian pharmaceutical products are more criticized. On the other hand, it is obvious that during this period the sales volumes of Armenian pharmaceutical products have increased. It can be concludes that Armenian pharmaceutical enterprises have expanded volumes of their marketing events, including plans of motivating physicians and pharmacists, which prove to be efficient. It is notable, since Armenian pharmaceutical products do not have the same popularity as imported ones do. 
  8. Healthy nation, healthy economy Campaign has generally solved the problem of raising consumer’s awareness about Armenian pharmaceutical products. Physicians who have participated in trainings are more familiar and knowledgeable about any topic of the survey and have positive attitude than those physicians who have not participated in trainings. It is obvious, that there are still some physicians in health institutions (hospitals, policlinics, ambulatories) who are not really aware of Armenian pharmaceutical industry and have deficient information.
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