With an eye on the Bric, Japanese Astellas arrives in Brazil
Valor Econômico
Pharmaceutical company Astellas, second biggest company of the sector in Japan, is taking advantage of the wave of growth of the Brazilian health market to put up its own structure for the sale of its drugs in the country. The purpose of the laboratory is to start importing its line of treatment for urological illnesses. "Brazil was the last country of the Bric (group of countries also formed by China, Russia and India) for the company to get installed", said the president of Astellas in Brazil, Devaney Baccarin, former-president of American Genzyme in the country. "Brazil has shown significant performance", he said.
The pharmaceutical company arrived in Russia in 1992 and in China in 1994, by means of companies that later merged with each other creating Astellas. In India, the group arrived in 2008. Among the 20 largest pharmaceutical markets of the world, Brazil is the one that grew the most last year, with 12% of increase, only behind China (27%). It is the ninth largest market, with US$ 20 billion in sales a year.
The first goal of Astellas in the country is to recover the registration of the medicine Omnic, used in the treatment against the increase of the prostate volume before the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). The drug that has been sold by the Brazilian Eurofarma for nearly ten years is responsible for R$ 17 million (US$ 9.4 million) in annual sales in Brazil, with nearly 5% of the sales in the category.
Next, the company should introduce a new version of this medicine that is still not sold in the country called Omnic OCAS, capable of extending its effect in the body of the patients. Astellas should also submit to Anvisa the VESIcare, a drug against the urinary incontinence that will receive a new name in the country. Within the next years, the purpose is to get into other therapeutic classes.
The Japanese pharmaceutical company has other medicines licensed in Brazil. One of them with Swiss Roche, called Protopic, in the dermatological segment. The other is sold by American Janssen-Cilag. It is called Progaf and it is used against rejection in case of organ transplants. "As the contracts expire, we will evaluate the return they bring us", explained Baccarin.
Astellas will hire 60 people, of which nearly 40 in the area of medical marketing. The management is practically defined with the medical director José Machado Moura (former-Wyeth), the financier officer Pedro Meirelles (former-Lundbeck) and the responsible for the commercial area, Alexander Gibim (former-Eli Lilly). The staff should be completed with two other officers.