New Healthcare research report from Business Monitor International is now available from Fast Market Research

Boston, MA -- (SBWire) -- 02/11/2013 --BMI View: Although this quarter has seen a number of regulatory initiatives taken by the Lebanese Minister of Health, Ali Hassan Khalil, to improve the state of the pharmaceutical industry, we maintain that a multilateral approach is required to improve foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country and that, in the short to medium term, investment will be deterred and medical tourism revenue diminished by wider macroeconomic and political vulnerabilities. Nonetheless, BMI holds to the view that the country provides stable opportunities for multinationals to tap into the cultural prioritisation for medicines and benefit from the increasingly-urbanized population, although risks include a relatively weak regulatory framework, poor intellectual property laws and medicine pricing restrictions.

Headline Expenditure Projections

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- Pharmaceuticals: LBP1,959bn (US$1.30bn) in 2011 to LBP2,061bn (US$1.37bn) in 2012; +8.6% in local currency terms and +9.2% in US dollar terms. Forecast revised upwards from Q412 due to modifications to historical figures.
- Healthcare: LBP4,495bn (US$2.99bn) in 2011 to LBP4,750bn (US$3.15bn) in 2012; +5.7% in local currency terms and +5.6% in US dollar terms. Forecast revised upwards from Q412 due to modifications to historical figures.
- Medical Devices: LBP365.26bn (US$243mn) in 2011 to LBP402.84bn (US$267mn) in 2012; +10.3% in local currency terms and +10.2% in US dollar terms. Forecast revised downwards from Q412 due to modifications to historical figures.

Risk/Reward Rating: Lebanon's position in our MEA Risk-Reward Ratings Matrix has remained constant over the last quarter at eighth place out of 30 countries and it maintains a score of 50.4 out of 100, significantly above the regional average of 44.2. Lebanon ranks favourably as a relatively highreward- low-risk prospect for multinational investment in the Middle East as the most attractive country in the Gulf Levant, behind markets in the GCC and Israel and South Africa.

Key Trends & Developments

- In November 2012, four pharmaceutical importers were reportedly involved in an operation to import more than 100 types of drugs through forged documentation, according to Lebanon's Parliamentary Health Committee chief, Atef Majdal. Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil's signature was forged in order to import the untested pharmaceuticals into the country. The health minister indicated he viewed the discovery as an accomplishment by his ministry in uncovering the ring of importers.

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