Investing in the pharmaceutical industry: The homeopathy market

Thèmes abordés

Homeopathy - Homeopathic market - Boiron - Lehning - Financial Analysis - Pharmaceutical industry - Inevestment decision - Investing - Ratio

Résumé du document

When deciding to invest in the pharmaceutical industry, several areas represent interesting alternatives. Homeopathy is one of those alternatives. Even if homeopathy is often questioned, several large companies are making profits in this specific industry. This report analyzes the homeopathic market and presents two large actors on the European market: Boiron and Lehning. Finally, this report features a comprehensive financial analysis of both laboratories in order to choose which one to invest in to get the most profitable outcomes.

Extraits

[...] Sur ces prescrivent des médicaments homéopathiques. Dans ces derniers, certains prescrivent très peu, quelques tubes à l'année mais qui font quand même la démarche ; dans ces sont des médecins considérés comme homéopathes. Tout le reste qui ne prescrivent pas aujourd'hui, sont des médecins qui pourraient le faire. Alors pourquoi ne le font-ils pas ? Car ils n'ont pas accès à l'information, qu'ils n'ont pas eu l'idée de se former, car actuellement l'homéopathie ne rentre pas dans la cadre de la formation en médecine. [...]

[...] A 40 CH dilution corresponds to 1 mother tincture in a solvent which mass would be higher than the one of the universe! As a result, we can say that no molecule of active principle remains in homeopathic preparations. In order to answer skeptics, homeopaths maintain that the final diluted solution still retains some "essential property" of the original natural substance, because the preparation has been shaken after each dilution (during succussion). Dr. Hahnemann believed that this dynamization of the solution caused a "spirit-like" healing force to be released from within the substance. [...]

[...] According to conventional doctors, homeopathy is not more efficient than a placebo. They even say that Hannemann would be the placebo effect's discoverer The Placebo effect The word “placebo” comes from the Latin word meaning shall please”. A placebo is a pharmacological substance such as sugar pill or saline solution that produces an effect that is similar to the one that could have been expected of a pharmacologically active substance, for instance antibiotics The physician's belief in the treatment and the patient's faith in the physician exert a mutually reinforcing effect; the result is a powerful remedy that is almost guaranteed to produce an improvement and sometimes a cure. [...]

[...] This reimbursement rate concerns 1163 remedies of the 3300 registered homeopathic remedies. Knowing that homeopathy costs are 4 times lower than conventional medicine ones, such a decision is a paradox: decreasing the reimbursement rates of homeopathic remedies will not : significantly help to decrease the social security deficit, and it would be much more efficient to deal with hospitalization costs for instance (which are incredibly high) before taking such insignificant measures Boiron and Lehning 2.1 BOIRON The company's structure Boiron laboratories were created in 1967 with the opening of a production unit in Lyon. [...]

[...] When going to the doctor or to a pharmacy, patients can indeed be prescribed (or choose) both homeopathic remedies and conventional one. Substitutes therefore represent a very dangerous threat for laboratories producing homeopathic remedies. Customers' bargaining power: as far as homeopathy is concerned, direct customers are pharmacies who buy laboratories' products and then sell them to patients. Since pharmacies are the only authorized distribution channels in France, their bargaining power is very high. If a pharmacist refuses to buy a remedy, laboratories indeed have no other choice to distribute their products. [...]