“In the first three months it became harder and harder to achieve the sales we set out to. This was the most difficult period I have seen in my entire experience,” Robert Popescu said.
A&D Pharma’s CEO added this year’s target was a high single-digit increase in business, which he described as “modest”. He did not reveal the first quarter results, saying he did not have final data yet.
The drug market reached EUR697 million in the first quarter, up 3.6% in euros (4.3% in lei), on the year-ago period, according to market research company Cegedim Romania.
Cegedim says the market performance was low, citing long payment terms in this industry and the financing talks as the reasons for the slowdown. Growth rate in the first quarter of 2012 stood at 18% in euros and 21.6% in lei.
A&D Pharma includes distributor Mediplus, Sensiblu retail pharmacy chain, and a sales and marketing division. Robert Popescu, 47, has been running it since 2008. Before taking his current job, he used to work for pharmaceuticals distributor Relad, the main competitor of Mediplus at the time.
Sensiblu numbers more than 400 retail pharmacies and took over the 90-pharmacy chain City Pharma last year. Popescu said 2012 was a really tough year in terms of drug retail competition.
Asked whether he was going to revise the full-year budget after the first three months, Popescu said it was too early to tell.
“If first-half results look the same as after the first three months, then we’ll think of revising the budget.”
According to the latest information available, A&D Pharma had budgeted EUR800 million revenue last year and hopes to reach EUR1 billion in two or three years.
Robert Popescu believes the pharmaceutical market, which stood at EUR2.6 billion last year, could increase in 2014, if new drugs were introduced on the subsidized drug list. The decision about what drugs to put on that list falls upon the Health Ministry.
Mediplus’ main competitors are Farmexpert, Farmexim, Fildas, Polisano, Europharm and ADM Farm. The largest retail pharmacy chains are Sensiblu, Catena, Dona and Help Net.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)