Research and Markets has announced the addition of Contraception Market Report 2007 to their offering.
The UK market for contraceptives, as evaluated in this report, comprises four main sectors: hormone-based products; barrier products; intra-uterine device (IUD) products and other methods.
Hormone-based products is a publicly funded sector, is the largest sector, having overtaken barrier products, which was the largest sector in 2004. The former continues to perform well, particularly with oral contraceptives, while the latter is currently experiencing difficulties in terms of deflationary pressure on prices, which is affecting value levels.
The total market was worth GBP 164.5m in 2007, which is not a huge sum in comparison with other sectors within the pharmaceutical market. This is a low-revenue industry with a fairly saturated, slow-growing consumer base of mainly women. There is not much incentive for new product development (NPD — although it is happening) and it is telling that the most popular oral contraceptive, Microgynon, was introduced onto the UK market during the 1960s. New products — such as the combined pill Yasmin, from Schering Health and the progestogen-only pill Cerazette, from Organon — have tended to take market share from other products, rather than to stimulate the sector as a whole.
Society is changing and, although levels of sexual activity have not altered much overall, people are becoming sexually active at an earlier age. This impacts on the teenage pregnancy rate, which is still the highest in Europe, and also on the occurrences of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which are increasing at alarming rates.
More education on STIs and more encouragement to use condoms, in particular, is currently a government target. This is boosting volume sales of condoms and encouraging more players to move into the sector, but revenue growth, as a whole, is currently on a downward curve within a heavily discounted market. Manufacturers of condoms have attempted to redress the loss in value through expansion of condom ranges into areas such as lubricants and massagers.
In terms of the protected market, there has been a move towards long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), which the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) believes will be more effective methods, both in terms of contraception and cost, over the longer term. The Mirena intra-uterine system (IUS) which can last up to 5 years, has been particularly successful and there has been significant growth in the number of prescriptions issued in the UK over the period. Similarly, the contraceptive implant Implanon has become much more popular. With both these methods, women can effectively forget about contraception — certainly in terms of pregnancy — therefore, the risk of unwanted pregnancy is low.
However, for the majority of young women, in particular, the pill — and mainly the combined pill — will continue to be the dominant form of contraception for some years to come. Nonetheless, for both men and women (again, particularly popular with younger adults), the condom is crucial to prevent STIs. Both of these sectors have an assured future — certainly in terms of demographics — and this stable market is firmly underpinned.
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Source:
Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
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