“The production transfer process has not yet begun, volumes are not yet being transferred. We are currently under the technical transfer process, namely data and know-how on the production process and packaging,” company officials told MEDIAFAX.
They did not when production transfer and layoffs would begin but said announcements made in June are still valid.
“As we said in June, we expect the factory in Brasov will exit GSK’s global production network by the end of 2015. (…) production will be transferred to Poland and Spain,” company officials said.
GSK said in June it had failed to find a buyer for Europharm Brasov in ten months of searching and and decided to shut it down by the end of next year, laying off 236 employees.
n 1996, GSK bought 65% in Romania’s Europharm, a company then owned by businessman Mihai Miron and which came with a medicine production unit in Brasov. In 2003, GSK bought the remaining 35% stake in Europharm.
According to market research company Cegedim Romania, GSK ranks sixth on the Romanian pharmaceutical market, with a 4.4% market share.
Europharm Brasov is the second largest medicine producer in Romania, after Terapia Cluj, reporting sales of RON463.4 million (EUR104 million) in 2012, up 13.6% on the year, and nearly double net profit net of RON49.3 million (EUR11 million).