Sicomed to relaunch Gerovital products

Pharmaceuticals company Sicomed this week will launch the first products of the Gerovital range on the Romanian market, in a first stage viewed as a test for the future development of the brand, which is hugely popular in the United States and Japan.

“Our sales target this year for the new Gerovital range amounts to 1.1 million dollars (some 0.9 million euros), accounting for 0.6% of the company”s turnover in 2005,” said Klaas Postema, Sicomed general manager.

The Gerovital brand, developed in the first half of last century by Ana Aslan, is currently shared by several companies. Sicomed holds the rights for pharmaceutical products, Farmec Cluj and Gerovital Cosmetics Bucharest are entitled to make cosmetic products under the same name, whereas the Gerovital services are provided by the Ana Aslan Institute, in Bucharest.

Company officials estimate a 100% surge in the sales of Gerovital products on the Romanian market in 2006. “The brand awareness and the increasing purchasing power will spur the growth of Gerovital. Moreover, it has been estimated that people will change their lifestyle in the following years, and life expectancy will grow,” Postema added.

“The Gerovital Line currently includes five products – for the memory, joints, eyes, heart and menopause – but three more products will be added by the end of the year,” said Robertina Cosac, Sicomed”s marketing manager.

The products to be introduced by Sicomed can be bought without a prescription. Sicomed also makes Gerovital H3, which, unlike Gerovital Line, is part of the ethical drugs. Gerovital H3 annually posts sales worth 400,000 euros in Romania and 600,000 euros in exports.

The drugmaker wants this new range to achieve a 15% market share in terms of value and 10% in terms of volume in the first year after launch.

“We have already received export demands, mainly from the Latin countries, Japan and Austria,” Postema said. dan.zavoianu@zf.ro ; alexandru.cerchez@zf.ro