The disastrous situation of the Romanian healthcare system has not caused just headaches to pharmaceutical companies’ managers, but has also given them ideas for new businesses, where bills are still paid.
One of these managers is Ioan Nani, general manager of Antibiotice Iasi, a company that has started producing bio-fertilisers.
Antibiotice started operating the fertilisers production line several months ago and has already managed to sell about 300,000 dollars’ worth of Azotofertil, its first product in this regard. The company is the only producer of bio-fertilisers in Romania at the moment.
“This business idea came to us in Hungary, where bio-fertilisers are extensively used because they are environment-friendly and their use triggers savings of more than 50% as compared to chemical fertilisers. The business is still a fledgling, with sales registered during the first few months reaching 300-400 tonnes. However, the product will be used on a larger scale in Romania, and we will be able to yield 50 tonnes daily,” Ioan Nani told Ziarul Financiar.
A production capacity of 18,000 tonnes per year, of which at least half would be sold, should bring Antibiotice additional income of several million dollars each year.
Antibiotice is the sixth player on the Romanian drug market, holding a market share of 3.7-3.8% and logging annual turnover of 36-38 million dollars, mainly derived from pharmaceutical products. Bio-fertilisers are substances derived through biosynthesis, which contain microorganisms that help plants take nitrogen from the air.
“Before entering this market (Azotofertil is already a brand of Antibiotice) we conducted some tests that proved the use of this product increases the yield of some types of crops by 15 to 40%,” Nani says. Antibiotice is the only large drug maker that is still held by the state. The company is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with capitalisation amounting to about 20 million dollars.
In the first half of this year, Antibiotice’s sales of drugs reached 19.17 million dollars, 10% higher as compared to the corresponding period of last year. Still, this positive performance was somewhat shadowed by an increase in receivables, which have come to outstrip turnover. laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro