EMS´s cub invests in research and new products
O Estado de S. Paulo 09/15/10
Emancipated last year by its parent, EMS, the largest national pharmaceutical group, owned by the business man Carlos Eduardo Sanchez, Germed Pharma is showing that the solo flight is being good for it. Created in 2004 as a product line of the mother parent, Germed earned R$ 193 million (US$ 98 million) in 2009, and is already the third largest national lab in sales of generic drugs, only behind Medley and EMS itself, and 25th place in the ranking of the Brazilian pharmaceutical market, according to the consulting firm IMS Health.The expectation is to earn $ 400 million ($ 228.6 million) this year, rocked by news of new drugs such as atovarstatina, generic Lipitor, the multinational Pfizer, the anti-cholesterol medicine sold over the world, reaching the market in October. In this case, Germed will compete directly with the EMS, the first company to produce the generic version. "Although we are under the same umbrella, we are independent and compete between us", said Jose Cosme dos Santos, president of Germed.
Among those already released, a good example of how products are moving Germed of the pharmaceutical market is the Lipiblock, a drug to combat obesity, which competes with Xenical, the Aché. Launched in April 2009, Lipiblock began to be sold 35% cheaper than the competition, to R$ 109 (US$ 62.3) a box of 42 tablets, compared with R$ 147 (US$ 84) of the rival. "In a short time, we expanded the total market of the drug from 22 thousand boxes to 40 thousand boxes per month", says dos Santos. Threatened, Aché was forced to reduce the price of Xenical and today, the difference in price compared to Lipiblock is no more than 5%.
Another coveted niche in which Germed obtained a license to operate was the drug against the impotence male. Since June, the lab sells sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient of the Viagra, Pfizer. Since then, with the entry of new competitors - the EMS itself, Eurofarma, Legrand, besides Germed - the price of Viagra has been halved. The original of Pfizer fell an average price of R$ 35 (US$ 20) per tablet to R$ 17 (US$ 9.7), while the generics are sold for around R$ 10 (US$ 5.7). The strategy developed by dos Santos, an executive from Rio, who made a career in the pharmaceutical industry and served as vice president of EMS from 2006 to 2008, is based on the rapid growth of product offerings.
Today Germed´s portfolio includes more than 140 drugs, sold in 250 presentations. "We launched at least two new products per month", says dos Santos. To maintain this pace, Germed is investing 6% of its revenue (something around R$ 24 million/US$ 13.7 million) in the research and development areas, a high index for the standards of Brazilian companies in general.