Terapia considering acquisition in Poland

Pharmaceutical company Terapia Cluj-Napoca is considering the possibility of an acquisition on the Polish market, as part of its expansion strategy on the regional markets.

“We are contemplating a company in Poland, a generics producer whose sales are focussed on the drugstore segment and less on hospitals. We have not started negotiations with this company yet,” Stephen Stead, Terapia”s general manager stated, without naming the company in question.

The company had announced as early as the end of last year that it had plans to buy regional drugmakers. Terapia has recently completed the acquisition of two Bucharest-based companies, Pharmaplant Biogalenica and Promedic.

“The budget for a possible acquisition depends on the value of the company. We can attract funding worth the equivalent of about 75% of the sales made by that company,” Stead added.

The company could be the first Romanian drug maker to make an acquisition outside Romanian borders. Its goals for this year include a 30% growth in sales, bringing it to more than $100m (some 83 million euros).

“We are preparing product launches for four therapeutic segments of interest for our company. We will also continue to invest in boosting our sales force. The Terapia Group currently has one of the largest sales teams on the market. At the same time, we will stay focused on exports, in order to consolidate our position on key markets,” Stead added.

Terapia”s exports should therefore progress by 16% to 13 million dollars (11 million euros), compared with the level seen in 2005.

Their export portfolio includes some 25 drugs, with Faringosept being the best-selling product on the Russian, Ukrainian and Polish markets. The group exports to 15 European countries and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and has opened offices in Russia and Ukraine. The company plans to begin exporting for the Danish market and introduce new products on the Polish market this year.