“We may grow more than that but it would come at a significant profitability cost. It wouldn’t make any sense,” Robert Popescu, chief executive officer of A&D Pharma, told Ziarul Financiar.
A&D Pharma comprises drug distributor Mediplus, retail pharmacy network Sensiblu, a sales & marketing division, and the Anima clinics. Distribution is the largest of its operations. Sensiblu has recently acquired the 90-pharmacy network City Pharma in the largest deal on in drug retail, a market with more than 6,000 drugstores. The company remains interested in retail acquisitions.
“We had more than 300 pharmacies before this acquisition. Now we are at over 400. Assuming we’ll be able to position these pharmacies to match the average of the already existing ones (which might happen in one year i.e.), that means we’ll grow the business by 17% to 18%,” said Robert Popescu.
The drug market amounts to EUR2.5 billion a year and is very difficult because of the long payment terms of the govenrment and the introduction of the clawback tax (a tax on the producers’ sales).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)