Dragos Dinu: Market entirely reshaped

The chief of A&D Pharma, comprising Mediplus drug distributor and Sensiblu pharmacies, has restructured the company during the most difficult period the pharmaceutical market has experienced in recent years.

Few pharmacy managers could foresee that 2004, regarded as the best year for the pharmaceutical market over the last period, would be followed by disruptions in the payment cycle, lower mark-ups and a ministerial order banning the opening of new pharmacies until the end of the year.

To further complicate things, the second half of the year saw a draft law bringing severe restrictions regarding the possibility of expanding pharmacy chains.

Dragos Dinu, the executive chairman of pharmaceutical company A&D Pharma, has become more cautious in making projections, as compared with the beginning of the year.

“We hope we will witness 10% turnover growth for the current year, at the level of both units of the group,” Dinu said.

The estimations he made at the beginning of the year were more upbeat and indicated a continuation of last year”s trend, when the group”s two companies increased their turnover by 80% from 2003, to 191 million euros.

The growth pace has been hit by the legislative uncertainty during the second half of the year and by the Health Ministry”s moves to cut down the maximum margins for drug distribution and retail. These have been compounded by the major financing problems seen by the system in the first half of the year, Dinu also stated.

To offset these negative elements, which do not depend on his own managerial decisions, Dinu plans for 2006 to develop the company he runs in directions that are complementary to the core business.

“We will focus on strategic partnerships that should bring the company some added value, such as the Lioccitane (cosmetics and para-pharmaceuticals) brand, which Sensiblu has recently brought onto the Romanian market. Another development direction in 2006 would be preparations for the private health insurance market. At the same time, investments intended to boost operational cost efficiency are also a priority in the company”s strategy,” Dinu added.

Dinu ran both the distribution and pharmacy units until the middle of this year, when new general manager positions were created for each. This June, Vivian Diaconescu (previously with Mediplus) became Mediplus general manager, while Claudiu Opran (previously a SABMiller manager) the head of Sensiblu.

“Over recent months, we”ve split all departments, from top management to execution level, and instated them within Sensiblu and Mediplus. This new structure allows departments to focus on each market separately, on pharmaceutical retail and distribution, respectively”.

alexandru.cerchez@zf.ro