New Hemofarm acquisition in Serbia – Mergers in pharma sector contribute to product quality and keeping jobs

The news that Hemofarm had officially acquired the company Ivancic & Sinovi confirmed the projections that Serbia is heading for the period of intensive acquisitions in the pharmaceutical sector, in line with the world trends.

Mirjana Vucicevic, the secretary of the Association for Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Economy at the CCIS, says for our web portal that, nowadays, the pharmaceutical industry is closely tied to the usage of high technologies and that the concentration of the global pharmaceutical industry, strengthening of the competition, lack of new drugs and quick development of the global market of generic drugs inevitably leads to new acquisitions.

– These acquisitions within the local pharmaceutical industry contribute to the quality of products and, consequently, to health protection and keeping jobs – Vucicevic points out.

By signing the agreement, Hemofarm has acquired the products, the production facility in Stari Banovci, the employees and the intellectual property of Ivancic & Sinovi. The company doesn't wish to divulge the value of the acquisition. It is known that more than thirty Ivancic & Sinovi products will keep their names in the market, and Hemofarm claims that it will increase the availability of these products.

Ronald Seeliger, CEO of Hemofarm, estimated that the acquisition was timely and saw it as "taking over the pieces of the puzzle, which fits perfectly with Hemofarm's business strategy". The company, however, is not considering new acquisitions in the market at the moment.

The pharmaceutical industry, the company says for eKapija, along with food production and energy, is a strategic resource, which makes even the slightest changes within it tectonic in impact.

– At the moment, there are no plans for new acquisitions in Serbia, but it is apparent that Hemofarm has a clear long-term planning and development strategy, which it implements consistently by keeping its finger on the pulse of the market and following current events in the effort to remain the pharmaceutical leader in the region.

Zdravlje Leskovac changes 5 owners
The pace of changes within the pharmaceutical market is confirmed by the fact that Zdravlje Leskovac has changed five owners in ten years, starting with Iceland's Delta Pharmaco, through Actavis, Watson Pharmaceuticals and Allergan, to Teva.

First, Actavis acquired Zdravlje Leskovac in 20013, after which the USA-based Watson Pharmaceuticals bought a bankrupted Actavis and continued to run the new company under the name of Actavis. The company then bought the generic drug manufacturer Allergan in early 2015 and continued to operate under the new name. Finally, less than a month ago, Teva completed the takeover of Allergan's generic operations, which include the company Actavis Generics, which operates in Serbia as well (Zdravlje Leskovac factory and Actavis Belgrade).

– Through this acquisition, Actavis will maintain the continual and stable supply of the Serbian market with its products, along with the projected expansion of the portfolio with modern and efficient pharmaceutical drugs, which are new to the market – said Pavle Marjanovic, the general manager of Actavis Serbia, thereby confirming that investments and sales in the global pharmaceutical market have a great impact on the local industry.

Repositioning Galenika

The question of preserving the local production is especially pertinent these days, as there's a potential new player in the market, Galenika's new strategic partner, which will acquire, through the capital increase, a 25% share of the company at the price of at least EUR 7 million. The commission for carrying out the strategic partnership procedure for Galenika approved on Friday, August 19, all three bids made by India's Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited, Brazil's EMS S.A. And the Consortium of Frontier Pharma Limited from Great Britain and LLC NPA Petrovax Pharm from Russia.

After the analyses have been completed, the commission will prepare the shortlist and submit it for approval to the Government of Serbia, and, as they pointed out, the ideal partner would keep the employees, invest in modernizing the facilities and maintain and step up the production of pharmaceutical drugs.

The Association for Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Economy at the CCIS points out that the strategic partnership allows Galenika to reposition itself and reminds that Galenika's brands are recognizable and traditionally present in the East Europe markets.

– The Serbian pharmaceutical drugs manufacturer has adequate space, equipment and workforce for supplying the market with quality, efficient and safe drugs. For that reason, a new partner is expected primarily to introduce new drugs into the offer, open new markets, optimize the cooperation with the current partners and the existing system of implementing the goods – says Mirjana Vucicevic and adds that the competitiveness of the generic pharmaceutical industry is founded on expense management.

The production of generic drugs in Serbia is dependent on the import, and, according to the Serbian Business Registers Agency, there are 55 business entities in Serbia dealing in 'manufacture of pharmaceutical products', which employ more than 5,000 workers. Among them are three local state-owned drug producers (Galenika, the Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera – Torlak and the Blood Transfusion Institute), offices of multinational generic companies and producers with private local capital and those with mixed capital.

Of these, according to the CCIS data, only Galenika, Hemofarm and Zdravlje-Actavis maintain full drug production activities.

Ivana Bezarevic

Hemofarm a.d. Vršac

IIS Pharmaceutical doo Beograd

Udruženje za farmaceutsku i medicinsku privredu PKS

Privredna komora Srbije

Zdravlje a.d. Leskovac

Institut Torlak

Institut za transfuziju krvi Srbije Beograd

Actavis Group Island

Watson Pharmaceuticals Florida USA

Allergan Inc USA

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd Izrael

acquisitions in pharmaceutical industry

CCIS

Mirjana Vucicevic

Actavis

Delta Pharmaco

Watson Pharmaceuticals

Allergan

Teva

Institute of Virology Vaccines and Sera Torlak

Blood Transfusion Institute