BNDES plans to create a superpharmaceutical company from alliances
Folha de S. Paulo - 04/28/2008
The National Bank of Social and Economic Development (BNDES) articulates the creation of a national superpharmaceutical company, which could be made feasible from the merger of national groups that work in the sector. The bank does not reveal names, but it affirms that it is intermediating dialogues among companies. The rationale is similar to the model of creation of the national supertelephone company : the bank is interested in being a partner of the corporation and ensuring veto power to operations that could result in the denationalization of the company. BNDES' objective is to create a company with sales from R$ 2 billion (US$ 1.14 billion) to R$ 3 billion (US$ 1.71 billion), with sufficient size to strongly invest in innovation, both in improving medicines and in the development of new drugs. This can also contribute to reduce the deficit of the trade balance, one of the highest of the sector. The preferential option of the bank is to become a minority stockholder in the new businesses, with 20% to 30% of their capital. The bank defends the creation of a 100% national company, but admits the hypothesis of an association, in a minority share, with a foreign company, as long as it brings state-of-the-art technology to the country. In 2007, the deficit of the trade balance of medicines was R$ 2.775 billion (US$ 1.44 billion) and the pharmachemical one (raw materials for the production of phamaceuticals) was R$ 1.327 billion (US$ 687.6 million). The Profarma (Support Program for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Productive Chain), launched in 2004, was reformulated last year. Effective until 2012 and having a budget of R$ 3 billion (US$ 1.71 billion), the program will mainly foucs on innovation. From a definition of the Ministry of Health of the strategical itens that are usually imported, it would be possible to incentivate the production of new medicines in the country.