“The market for unbranded medicine grew by 18 percent, the highest among other types,” said Jorge Wagner, chairman of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group (IPMG), during a media briefing on market outlook on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, ethical branded drugs grew by 5.92 percent while the sales of over-the-counter [OTC] medicine grew by 6.45 percent, said Jorge, adding that the volume growth could be more than 7.49 percent as volume of generic medicine is growing robustly .

(Read also: Tax incentive sought for pharmaceutical ingredient producers)

Out of the $5 billion, 11 percent is unbranded generic medicine while the remaining 89 percent is comprised of ethical branded and OTC sales.

Jorge added the 7.49 percent growth is a “boom” compared to slower growth in the previous two years, in 2015 and 2014 at 4.92 percent and 6.92 percent respectively.

State-backed National Health Insurance (JKN) program is expected to continue the good growth in line with increasing membership in the program.

JKN aims to cover all 290 million people in the country by 2020. It already covers 175 million.

IPMG is an association, which all 25 members are multinational companies running on research-based production. They include Bayer, Pfizer and Novartis. (bbn)

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