KYIV. Oct 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Swiss pharmaceutical company Acino plans to invest in production of new pharmaceutical products in Ukraine, build up the staff of Pharma Start company, which Acino has acquired and integrating into the company’s production facilities in the quality audit system.
“I cannot say how much investment and when we plan, but first, this will be investment in the development of the staff, investment to integrate in the quality audit system and investment in the development and production of new products that would be made in Ukraine. However, initially, this will be investment in people in order to integrate Pharma Start in the Acino family,” Acino Group CEO Jostein Davidsen told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He did not disclose the sum of the deal, referring to the fact that the owners of Acino are two private equity funds.
“One should understand that the cost of the deal is not linked to the market, but to the devaluation of the national currency,” he said.
Davidsen said that the development plans in Ukraine include the introduction of new products to the market and development of the existing product range.
“We have a wide product range and we have plans to invest in new and old products. We would add our own products to Pharma Start’s portfolio. I want to say that the portfolios of Pharma Start and Acino are very complimentary. They also produce medicine to treat heart, neurological diseases and over-the-counter drugs. We have two or three coinciding products,” he said.
“We focus on generics which production is sophisticated and which could be taken once a day instead of three times a day and medicines with the novel drug delivery forms, in particular, plasters,” he said.
Davidsen said that the company plans to invest to build up the structure to promote products in Central Asia and Belarus.
“Today, there is a representative office in Uzbekistan and partnership agreements to export to Russia. We have some plans for non-CIS countries, but this is medium- and long-term outlook,” he said.
Commenting on the acquisition of Pharma Start in Ukraine, he said that the company was bought as a part of the development strategy for quickly developing markets. This would allow the company to more than triple turnover in five years, to EUR 1 billion.
“The largest part of the company’s growth will be via mergers and acquisitions. In December 2014, we bought a small company in Russia Copharm, and the second acquisition is Pharma Start in Ukraine. We’re designing projects and looking for other mergers and acquisitions both on the CIS and in the Middle East, South Africa and the central part of South America,” he said.
“We will invest in Pharma Start’s business. Our goal is to enter top ten for sure and maybe top five of the largest companies in Ukraine in the coming five years,” he said.
He said that “the company we bought is in line with our parameters – it is not very large and not very small.”
He said that before buying the Ukrainian company Acino Group studied “not many offers, as not many companies were in line with the Acino’s requirements and not many companies in Ukraine want to be sold.”
He said that international pharmaceutical manufacturers are careful in acquiring assets in Ukraine or Russia.
“We don’t rule out that there will be more merger and acquisition projects on the pharmaceutical market in Ukraine. Despite everything that was happening in Ukraine recently, crisis, political and economic instability, Ukraine is the market with a very good potential in the long-term outlook,” he said.
“We know that there are some risks when you buy a company in the politically and economically instable country. These risks are to be calculated. Despite this, we hope that in the future we will see growth from quickly developing markets. However, recently due to the outflow of money from these markets, the slow is seen. Today there are few companies which are ready to invest and build something, while before late 2013, everyone wanted to invest in Ukraine, Russia and the CIS,” he said.
Acino, a Swiss pharmaceutical company headquartered in Aesch, Switzerland, develops, manufactures well-proven and innovative pharmaceuticals in novel drug delivery forms. Acino is a leader in advanced drug delivery technologies with a focus on modified release oral forms, oral dispersible forms, transdermal systems and extended release parenterals, for which it also holds patents.
