Lek to shake-up antibiotic market with new plant

The new plant of Slovenian company Lek, based in Targu Mures, was finalised this month following an investment of more than 12 million dollars. The development will modify the structure of the Romanian antibiotics market, worth about 60-70 million dollars. The plant will be supported by the Novartis Swiss group (of which Lek is part) and will start producing macrolides – the next generation of antibiotics – exclusively targeted at the Romanian market in 2005.

“At present, macrolides (eritromicine, claritromicine), account for a mere 5% of the Romanian drugs market, while their weight on other European markets amounts to 20%. We hope that once we kick-start production in the new plant we will help this segment grow. However, the greatest proportion of the plant’s sales will be in the export market” Metod Dragonja, Lek chairman, stated on Tuesday, during the inauguration of the plant.

The Romanian antibiotics market is dominated by penicillin and cephalosporin, with the main players beside Lek (the second-largest market player) being Antibiotice Iasi, Europharm Brasov and Sicomed Bucharest.

Lek already holds a penicillin plant in Targu Mures, after it took over the Romanian producer PharmaTech in 2001.

The new plant, whose construction started in 2002, was initially designed to produce oral cephalosporines.

After Lek was taken over by Novartis in late 2002, its production profile was changed, the plant becoming the excellence centre of Sandoz (the generic drugs unit of Novartis) for macrolides. The plant’s production capacity amounts to 250 million units per year.

Over 80% of the plant’s production will be exported, mainly targeting European Union countries. Export activities will be launched in 2006, as licences for each market are obtained.

“We estimate the macrolides segment will post significant growth over the following years in Europe, and the new plant in Targu Mures will play quite an important role for us in this context. The plant’s production will increase gradually, as patents for several original products expire over the following years,” stated Hubert Hinzinger, manager of the pharmaceutical products division of Sandoz.

In 2005, the new plant will only include several products in its portfolio, and thus sales on the Romanian market will reach several million dollars.

Once the exports programme is launched, the plant will be able to register sales of several tens of million dollars during the coming years.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro