Eight in ten medicines sold in the country are produced by local laboratories; generics and branded copies drive growth.
Brazil’s domestic pharmaceutical industry maintained its leadership in the country’s retail drug market in 2025. Last year, eight out of every ten medicines sold were produced by Brazilian laboratories. In value terms, local manufacturers accounted for about R$5.80 of every R$10 generated in the market.
With updated drug pricing rules and the expected expiration of the patent on the active ingredient in the weight-loss drug Ozempic—a move likely to open space for new Brazilian competitors—2026 is also projected to be a year of growth for domestic laboratories.
According to a survey by the Association of Domestic Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Alanac), based on data from consultancy IQVIA and shared with Valor, total pharmaceutical industry revenue reached approximately R$146.8 billion (approx. $27,9 billion) in 2025, up 12% from 2024.
The performance was primarily driven by domestic manufacturers.
“Brazil’s research-based pharmaceutical industry has grown significantly over the past 20 years, and at a faster pace than foreign-owned companies,”
said Henrique Tada, Alanac’s executive president.
Domestic manufacturers generated R$83.9 billion in revenue last year, or 58% of the total, compared with R$62.9 billion for multinational companies, which accounted for 42%. In volume terms, domestic manufacturers’ share was even higher — about 80% — with sales of 4.7 billion packages.
Tada noted that domestic laboratories’ revenue share does not reach the same level as their volume share because multinational companies tend to offer more high-value, innovative products, which command higher prices.
“It’s not that there are no high-value Brazilian medicines; there are. But multinationals have a larger number of them. That explains the difference in value.”
The survey shows that domestic industries had their lowest participation in the reference drug segment, consistent with previous years. This category includes innovative products, generally the first in their class to reach the market. With 301.2 million units sold, Brazilian companies accounted for 34% of the total volume of 896 million packages in the segment. Revenue for domestic laboratories in this category totaled R$13.12 billion, about 26% of the R$51.1 billion generated.
According to Alanac, the drug categories that have most contributed to the expansion of domestic laboratories’ market share are generics and branded medicines. The latter includes “similar” drugs — copies of original products sold under proprietary brand names rather than solely by the name of the active ingredient.
Generics, as in previous years, were the category in which domestic manufacturers held the largest share, both in units sold and in revenue. Brazilian laboratories sold 2.2 billion units in this segment, or 94% of the 2.4 billion total, generating R$20.85 billion — roughly 91% of the R$23 billion market.
In the branded medicines category, domestic companies sold 2.2 billion units, equivalent to 83% of the 2.7 billion packages sold. In revenue terms, Brazilian firms recorded R$49.92 billion, representing about 69% of the R$72.62 billion generated in the segment.
“The domestic industry embraced generics and began developing a standard for copies, with bioequivalence and pharmaceutical equivalence studies. That transformed the entire sector, including similar medicines,”
Tada said.
He added that investments by Brazilian pharmaceutical companies in research and development centers have contributed to their retail market gains.
“Today, few multinational companies are manufacturing in Brazil. Of the medicines produced in the country, more than 90% are manufactured by domestic, Brazilian-owned companies,”
he said.
Growth expectations for 2026 are supported by Alanac’s view that laboratories remain committed to expanding production lines and investing in technological innovation. Tada also said that revisions to drug pricing rules published late last year by the federal government should facilitate the launch of incremental innovations — products that improve upon existing versions.
“The new rule will enable more products with incremental innovation. As a result, the participation of Brazilian companies in the reference drug segment should also increase,” he said. “And regarding weight-loss pens, there will certainly be more companies competing in that market, which is very positive,”
he added, referring to the expected patent expiration for semaglutide in March.
Source: Valor International
