LM Farma plans growing 30% in 2011 with exports to LA
Valor Econômico
Only Brazilian manufacturer of dressings for complex wounds, with high risk of infection, LM Farma, which completed 22 years last December, has good reasons to celebrate. 2010 ended with 1.7 million dressings sold, 30% more compared to the previous year and for 2011 it foresees achieving earnings 30% higher, of R$ 26 million (US$ 15.3 million), with the increase of the exports to the countries of Latin America. Only to cater to the domestic market, the production of LM Farma, according to its CEO, Luiz Modesto, should get to 2 million dressings this year. "According to the number of units sold and the participation in biddings of the Government, LM Farma is among the two largest companies in its segment in Brazil, competing with 13 European and American multinationals", he said.
Before creating his own business, the Executive worked 11 years at the Johnson & Johnson plant, in São José dos Campos, company that currently competes with LM Farma as well. "The difference is that J&J does not have local production for this type of dressing and it supplies the Brazilian market with importing from its plants in the United States." The local production, according to Modesto, is one of the key special features of LM Farma, because it implies shorter delivery times and a more competitive cost compared to the imported product. "Besides, the capacity to produce in Brazil a product with quality comparable to the best of the world also helps the country save foreign exchanges and decrease the dependence on the imported product" he says.
The business of dressings for complex wounds (considered chronic or acute, such as diabetic foot, for instance), according to Modesto, has been registering an amazing growth rate and the forecast is that it already generates something from R$ 150 million (US$ 88.2 million) to R$ 200 million (US$ 117.7 million) a year in Brazil. With good perspectives in the segment, LM Farma invested R$ 2 million (US$ 1.18 million) last year in the development and manufacture of innovative products and similar value will be invested in 2011 in new technologies. "We are working together with a German company and an American company in Brazil to produce what is most modern in the treatment of serious wounds by means of a vacuum pump". Currently, according to the Executive, there is only one company in the world working with such technology and LM Farma is already prepared to start manufacturing the product, which at a first stage will have 60% of national content.
Another innovative technology it is bringing to Brazil, he says, is a portable hyperbaric chamber, very efficient in the treatment of patients with venous ulcers. "The advantage of the chamber is that it can be used at home by the patient". The Executive expects the production of the new products to be initiated still in the first half of this year. "We have to wait only for the approval of our application with the Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency)". Both new technologies are already being sold in Brazil but according to Modesto, in some cases, the local production may reduce the final cost of the product in up to 50%.
Part of the investment planned for 2011, according to Modesto, will be invested in the creation of a pioneering center in Brazil focused on the study and treatment of chronic wounds. Scheduled to open in February, the new center, called Curaclin, will people provide assistance to the population, training for nurses and physicians from all over the country, and case studies and publications, with an information database on wounds and their treatment. "This will be the first center in Brazil, built in accordance with the American model, where nearly 3,500 clinics specialized in the study and treatment of complex wounds are already in operation". LM Farma is investing R$ 500 thousand (US$ 294 thousand) in the project and it studies the implementation of other centers in Brazil. The cities of Salvador and Belém are being evaluated.