1. Bet on Romanian market
Czech-held Penta Investments entered the Romanian market in full gear after buying the A&D Pharma group, which includes pharmaceutical retailer Sensiblu and wholesaler Mediplus. The deal got the green light from the Competition Council and ZF puts it at some EUR350 million to EUR400 million, setting the record for such deals in Romania. Penta had previously courted A&D Pharma and before making its latest move bought a number of Arta pharmacies.
2. Appetite for acquisitions
Several months after the announcement about the acquisition of A&D Pharma, the Farmexim group, which includes the wholesaler by the same name and the Help Net pharmacies was sold to German-held Phoenix, which offered more than EUR100 million for the business created by Ovidiu Buluc. Phoenix operates solely in the pharmaceutical industry.
3. Zentiva pharmaceutical plant has a new owner, its third in 12 years
Private equity firm Advent International returned to Romania in 2018 after having bought Zentiva generics division of the French-held Sanofi, which included the plant in Bucharest. Advent is the third owner of the former Sicomed plant, after Czech Republic’s Zentiva and Sanofi. The plant in Bucharest is among the few drug plants left in Romania.
4. Pharmaceutical wholesale draws investor attention
Pharmaceutical wholesale is an attractive market for Penta Investments and Phoenix, which bought two of the largest retail pharmacy chains, and chose to buy the respective wholesalers, too. The pharmaceutical wholesale market is put at almost 30 billion lei, with more than 1,600 companies operating in the sector. Whereas two years ago, major companies went insolvent or bankrupt, 2018 stood out as a more stable year, which shows the market has matured.
5. Pharmaceutical retail continues consolidation
The total number of pharmacies in Romania reached almost 8,000, with the top five actors by revenue accounting for almost one quarter of them, ZF has calculated from publicly available data and information supplied by companies. The actors on the market added more pharmacies in the past year. For instance, Catena, the business created by entrepreneur Anca Vlad, went past 700 pharmacies, after having ended 2017 with some 670. Farmacia Tei added two more pharmacies in 2018, when it expanded beyond Bucharest to Constanta.
6. Family businesses, the specialty of independent pharmaceutical retailers
Independent pharmacy chains with up to 60 pharmacies, which operate in a county or region of Romania, were created by local entrepreneurs who started from their profession as pharmacists and turned into a business. After decades of entrepreneurship, they decided to hand the business over to the next generation. Such examples are Farmacia Ardealul in Piatra Neamt, Farmacia Bajan in Ramnicu Valcea and Farmacia Forte Vita in Pitesti.
7. Healthcare system measured in shortages of essential drugs
The year 2018 started with a shortage of immunoglobulin, a substance derived from human plasma, after the market had been relying on a single producer to supply with products the 7,000 people who needed them for a while. The solution the authorities found was to suspend the clawback tax for plasma-derived substances for two years to encourage producers to return to the market.
8. The drug market went beyond RON15 billion, the highest level ever
Pharmaceutical sales in Romania reached RON15.2 billion in October 2017-September 2018, an increase of 11% over the same time in the previous years, Pharma & Hospital Report of market research company Cegedim shows. The Romanian pharmaceutical market has been on the rise in the past few years, except for July 2015-June 2016, when it shrank 4.4%.
9. Health Ministry makes of list essential drugs
The Health Ministry drew up a list of 243 strategic drugs for Romania, starting from the essential drug list of the World Health Organization. Vaccines and immunoglobulin are among the drugs Romania must never run out of, given the frequent shortages thereof on the past two years.
10. The largest pharmaceutical companies put new people in charge of the local operations
The pharmaceutical division of UK’s GSK appointed Dana Constantinescu to run its local operations this year. She has a 20-year experience in the company and had previously supervised corporate affairs, market access, public health and PR&communication of GSK. Another appointment at the top was Catalin Radu, country commercial lead at Bayer Pharma, who has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for 15 years.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)