At new stage, Biolab plans expansion
Valor Econômico
After the separation of the shared management with União Química, Biolab, which so far has rejected the siege from foreign pharmaceuticals, plans a jump in its short trajectory of 12 years. The laboratory is getting ready for a succession of launchings of new medicines that result from the internal development and from the partnership agreements with third parties.
The first medicine arrives in October. It is the launching of the first drug produced in nanotechnology, whose therapeutic indication the company keeps under secret. Still this year, Biolab should launch a hypertension medicine - one of the specialties of the Brazilian company - under the license of the Italian laboratory Minarini. "Our portfolio will be fairly rich as of 2011", told Valor the entrepreneur Cleiton de Castro Marques, 51, Biolab CEO. The laboratory develops 29 projects in its pipeline. The goal is to launch the first molecule - an antimycotic with antibacterial action - in 2012.
Together with the shareholders, the brother Paulo, 53, responsible for the industrial area, and Dante Alário Júnior, 63, who supervises the medical and research areas, Cleiton commented the moment the laboratory is going through amid the persistence of multinational companies interested in the purchase of assets in Brazil, as a way to make up for the lack of launchings of new products in their countries of origin.
According to them, Biolab has rejected all the offers made for the control of the company. Cleiton recalls the goal is to build the company since the development and the discovery of new drugs. The company sold R$ 475 million (US$ 259.6 million) in 2008, and it estimates sales of R$ 540 million (US$ 300 million) this year. The interest, according to Alário, is to enter into partnerships with companies that add value to the laboratory.
In its new stage, Biolab, that already had a unit of production of hormones, purchased the plant of production of solids and pomades in Jandira (SP), which belonged to Pharmacia, incorporated by the American Pfizer. "We invested R$ 30 million (US$ 16.7 million) there with the purchase of the plant and new equipment that comply with the standards of the FDA", says Paulo, who also loves cattle raising and the genetic manipulation of embryos.
Besides that, Biolab strengthened its team with the opening of 300 jobs, 100 of which are in industrial activities and 200 to strengthen the sales area, amounting to 800 promoters. The forecasts continue optimistic. According to Cleiton, in 2010, another 150 jobs will be created.