Sanofi aligns strategy for Medley
Valor Econômico
French company Sanofi-Aventis does not want to stay in a comfort zone. Leader in medications of prescription, over the counter and generic drugs in Brazil after the acquisition of the national laboratory Medley, in April 2009, the company is investing nearly US$ 100 million in the enlargement of two of its three plants installed in Suzano, Metropolitan Region of São Paulo and Campinas (SP), and it will erect its fourth unit in the country, in an investment of US$ 45 million. In an interview to Valor, Heraldo Marchezini, CEO of the company in Brazil, said the group has ambitious plans to the country that should become the fifth largest market for Sanofi in the world until 2011 - it is currently between the seventh and eighth position.
The acquisition of Medley by nearly € 500 million helped to consolidate the leadership of company in Brazil. Before the purchase of the national laboratory, the company had minor participation in generics. Now Medley should be the umbrella of the French company for its growth in Latin America. To move on with the businesses of Medley in Brazil, Sanofi repatriated the executive Décio Decaro who headed Sandoz, the generic branch of the Swiss Novartis in Spain, and gets to the company in July.
With the position consolidated in several segments in the country, the company is investing US$ 45 million to erect its fourth plant in the country to produce generic hormones. The unit will be built in Brasília and it should go into operation as of 2012 when it will be able to export to countries of Latin America. Another US$ 100 million are being invested since last year to increase the production of the units of Suzano, which belongs to Sanofi, and Campinas, absorbed by Medley.
The unit of Suzano is already the largest of Sanofi in the world and together with the unit of Campinas they will produce nearly 450 million packages of medications, 10% to 15% of which will be exported. The country already had the second largest industrial production in volume of the group, behind the French headquarters. The company has a development center in Suzano and another one in Campinas, with teams working in the increase of the Sanofi product line. With R$ 4.03 billion (US$ 2.24 billion) in gross income in Brazil, which includes eight months of operation of Medley, nearly 95% of the medications the company sell in the world have already lost patent. The global earnings of the group got to € 29.3 billion.
Despite of working with medications that have already lost patent, the company maintains heavy investments on research and development (R&D) for the launching of new products. Among its best-selling medications, the company has products of innovation and mature medicines, such as Dorflex, for instance, which are market leaders in the country. With global leadership in vaccines, the pharmaceutical company maintains in Brazil, through Sanofi Pasteur, agreements for the transfer of technology with the Butantan Institute for the vaccine of the H1N1 flu. "The market of vaccines in the world grows at two-digit rates. That is not different in Brazil. We will carry out clinical trials in the country for the dengue vaccine", said Marchezini.