Business news from Ukraine

“Yuria-Pharm” bought Uzbek pharmaceutical company

Yuria-Pharm, one of Ukraine’s leading pharmaceutical companies, has acquired the pharmaceutical company Reka-Med in Uzbekistan, using EUR10 million in financing from an existing loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) after it changed its purpose.
“The EBRD loan will allow Yuria-Fram, which exports 30% of its products (of which 15% are to Uzbekistan), to produce pharmaceutical products locally for the Uzbek market and free up about 10% of its capacity in Ukraine to produce products more critical to the domestic market,” the EBRD said in a Thursday press release.
It noted that buying the Uzbek company to switch to local production was the best strategic response to Russia’s unleashed war in Ukraine, which has made exports more difficult and costly.
“This agreement will improve the availability and affordability of drugs in Ukraine and Uzbekistan. It will also improve Yuria-Pharm’s profitability and allow it to diversify its production risks by locating production outside Ukraine,” EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Matteo Patrone said in a statement.
Purchase of assets abroad and entering the international level of activity will make “Yuria-Pharm” more competitive, the banker concluded.
The EBRD recalled that Yuria-Pharm’s main operating company, Yuria-Pharm LLC, which produces drugs and medical devices, signed an initial loan agreement with the EBRD in May 2019. The document provided for the company to receive EUR25 million financing in two tranches: the first reserved tranche of EUR15 million was for upgrading packaging lines, launching the production of a cancer drug in affordable individual doses and implementing energy efficiency measures, while the second, unreserved tranche of EUR10 million was for production improvements. It was this tranche that, once reserved and reassigned, was used to acquire Réka-Med.
The EBRD is the largest institutional investor in Ukraine. The bank promised to invest at least EUR3 billion in the real sector of the Ukrainian economy in 2022-23. In 2022, the EBRD invested EUR 1.7 billion, with another EUR 200 million mobilized from partner financial institutions. The loan to Yuria-Pharm is backed by a EUR2.5 million first-loss guarantee from the EBRD’s Special Crisis Response Fund.
According to the EBRD, Yuria-Pharm is among the top five pharmaceutical producers in Ukraine and sells its products all over Ukraine and exports to more than 40 countries.
In 2021, the company increased its net profit by 30.2% to UAH 883.5 million while revenues increased by 36.1% to UAH 4 billion 562.9 million.
Yuria-Pharm LLC was founded in 1998; its statutory fund is UAH 44.1 mln. The final beneficiaries with equal shares are Natalia Derkach and Nikolai Gumenyuk.
Reka-Med Farm LLC (Tashkent) was commissioned in 2006 as a joint Uzbek-Russian-British venture. According to the information on its website, it produces infusion intravenous drugs. Now the company has one line, the maximum average annual capacity of which is 18.15 million vials

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FARMAK PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY OPENS OFFICE IN UAE

Farmak pharmaceutical company, one of the largest exporters of pharmaceuticals, has opened an office in the United Arab Emirates, and plans to further strengthen its expansion in the Middle East and localization in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, its press service said on Tuesday. According to the press release, the company’s products have been presented in the Middle East market since 2016.
“While selling drugs through local distributors, the company audited the market potential and analyzed the product niches of the region’s pharmaceuticals. This year, in order to consolidate business management in the Middle East, Farmak’s management decided to open an office in the UAE,” the company said in the press release.
The new headquarters will be headed by Mourad I.Habib, who previously served as CEO of Tabuk Pharmaceuticals and led Sandoz’s Middle East operations for over eight years. According to Habib, who is quoted in the press release, the opening of the office in the UAE is only the first strategic step for Farmak; in the future, the company plans to strengthen its expansion in the region and localization in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The company said that at present, Farmak’s production facilities have successfully passed certification in the UAE government bodies. The company also registered a number of injectable drugs produced by Farmak, which are already being purchased at public and local hospital tenders in the region.
“The Middle East market is not new for us, and we are actively scaling up our presence in this region. We have chosen the United Arab Emirates as the center of activity in the Middle East,” Business Development Director of Farmak Viktor Kostiuk said.
At the same time, he recalled that the UAE has a reputation as a state with a very high level of the national healthcare system and strict regulation of activities related to the production and distribution of medicines. “The fact that Farmak products are represented on this market once again confirms the high level of quality of our products,” Kostiuk said.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market. The company’s product portfolio includes more than 220 complex-component modern medicines. Among the main directions are endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological, anti-cold and other drugs.
The UAE office is the sixth international office of the company. In 2020, Farmak increased its export deliveries by 40%. Today, the manufacturer’s products are represented in more than 30 countries of the EU, Central and South America, the CIS, the Middle East and Asia.

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FARMAK PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY SWITCHING TO DIGITAL DOSSIER OF MEDICINES

JSC Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) has launched the project “Electronic dossier of a series of medicinal products,” upon completion of which paper-based records of information on the production of a series of medicines will be completely replaced by electronic ones. According to the company’s press release, the project partner was Siemens, which introduced similar systems for the pharmaceutical companies Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda, etc.
The electronic dossier of a drug batch includes all the necessary protocols: from quality control of raw materials to information on all stages and parameters recorded during the manufacture of the drug.
The company clarifies that the introduction of an electronic dossier minimizes the risk of operator error, optimizes the technological process and allows real-time monitoring of the situation at the site, and also provides complete statistics for calculating the overall efficiency of the equipment
In addition, the electronic dossier allows an authorized person to analyze online all indicators of the drug for deviations and release a batch of the drug remotely, from anywhere in the world.
“Digitalization is a requirement of our time. As every citizen of Ukraine has an electronic passport, so each series of drugs should have its own electronic dossier. We are interested in the deep processes of digitalization, so we introduce electronic quality certificates, electronic research protocols, electronic dossiers of drug series and much more,” Executive Director of JSC Farmak Volodymyr Kostiuk said.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, produces medicines in all 14 therapeutic groups. Among the main directions are endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological, anti-cold and other drugs. Annually it introduces to the market about 20 new complex component modern drugs. Currently, the company’s product portfolio includes about 400 drugs.

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UKRAINIAN FARMAK CONFIRMS COMPLIANCE WITH GMP OF EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION

The pharmaceutical company PJSC Farmak (Kyiv) has confirmed the compliance with the GMP of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which is a prerequisite for registration/re-registration and sale of drugs in the markets of the EAEU member countries, in particular in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan.
According to the company’s press release, the inspection of the pharmaceutical company at the beginning of 2021 was carried out by representatives of the Republic of Belarus, who checked production, warehouse, laboratory facilities and the functioning of the pharmaceutical quality system.
“The presence of the EAEU certificate becomes a prerequisite for the registration/re-registration and sale of drugs in the markets of the EAEU member states (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc.) and will reduce the number of inspections carried out by local regulatory bodies of the EAEU member states,” a press release says.
The company is currently preparing to be tested for compliance with the FDA to enter the U.S. market, executive director of the Farmak company Volodymyr Kostiuk specified.
The company recalled that in 2020 the drug Dexamethasonum, which the company produces, successfully passed the WHO prequalification and is included in the list of drugs with confirmed quality and effectiveness in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19.
As reported, Farmak at the end of 2020 increased the share of exports to 29.6% in total sales. Export deliveries by the end of the year increased by 40%.

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UKRAINIAN FARMAK RAISES SHARE OF EXPORTS IN SALES TO 30%

Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) in 2020 increased the share of exports to 29.6% in total sales.
According to the company’s press release, export deliveries increased by 40% by the end of the year.
Farmak exports its products to the EU, Central and South America, the CIS, the Middle East, Asia, and others – a total of 35 countries around the world.
As the company notes, with the onset of the pandemic, the demand for drugs used in the complex therapy of patients with COVID-19 has grown sharply around the world. In particular, the matter concerns corticosteroids, relaxants, analgesics, antibiotics, as well as drugs for anesthesia and sedation, which are necessary when connecting patients to ventilators.
“A number of such drugs by Farmak have been exported to Israel, Great Britain, Sweden, France, Germany, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Singapore, as well as shipped for the WHO use,” the company said.
Farmak production lines, besides national ones, have European GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certificates. This allows products to be sold in countries with particularly stringent regulatory requirements.
“Now we are preparing to undergo FDA inspection to enter the U.S. market. Our strategic goal is to increase the share of exports in total sales to 40%,” Volodymyr Kostiuk, the executive director of the company, said.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, it produces medicines in all 14 therapeutic groups. Annually it introduces to the market about 20 new complex component modern drugs. Currently, there are about 100 drugs in development.
Farmak is a member of the Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine association.

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PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY FARMAK INTENSIFYING DIGITALIZATION DEVELOPMENT

The pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv) is intensifying the development of digitalization in order to scale up its business and build up its presence in world markets.
“Farmak is one of the largest exporters of domestic medicines. To scale up the business and build up its presence in the world, the company digitalizes all production and management processes. A transparent IT system for reporting, budgeting, production planning, sales, workflow, personnel assessment and training has been implemented at Farmak,” the company said in a press release.
According to Chief Information Officer at Farmak Denys Krestov, Farmak focuses on deep industrial digitalization processes.
“We are gradually switching to electronic quality certificates, electronic research protocols, electronic dossiers, e-serialization of products, and so on. Every day the system administration department maintains 30 physical platforms and more than 150 virtual ones that support the operation of business applications,” the company’s press service said, citing Krestov.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, produces medicines in all 14 therapeutic groups.
Over the past five years, Farmak’s investments in the scientific and technical complex, production equipment, and research activities amounted to UAH 3.4 billion.
JSC Farmak is a member of the Association of Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).

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