The UK pharmaceutical giant decided to remove the Europharm plant from its production chain, with the announcement coming as a shock last week.
Unless the group finds a buyer, 20% of Romania’s drug production will disappear overnight, 254 jobs will be lost and over EUR50 worth of exports will go.
Last year Europharm had a turnover of EUR104 million and a profit of EUR11 million.
“We will not be greedy. If we are talking about a good and cheap project, it is not difficult to sell. If we don’t manage to sell, it means nobody needs a facility for solid oral dosage forms, but there are companies interested in expanding to Europe,” Prigent told Ziarul Financiar in an interview.
UK group GSK, with annual turnover of over 26 billion pounds, has over 70 plants worldwide and 22 in Europe. The company bought the Europharm plant in Brasov from Romanian businessman Mihai Miron in several stages starting in 1998. Since then it has invested over $100 million.
“There have been people who have contacted us for information,” the manager says.
Prigent says GSK wants to make this exit in order to reduce capacity, but that it wants closure to be the last resort, so it will be flexible with potential buyers.
“We think we have a good chance of selling and interest at this stage is significant,” Prigent also says.
GSK’s announcement was all the more surprising since four years ago the company announced it planned to make the Brasov plant into a EUR300 million export base.
Last year 60% of production was exported, with the company ranking 75th among the largest exporters in the Romanian economy.
Businessman Mihai Miron is the first to show interest, saying he is “exploring” the possibility of buying Europharm.
“It would be a pity for it to disappear from the map of drug producers,” Miron says.
GSK’s decision not to produce in Brasov anymore is due to production overcapacity for solid oral forms (tablets).
(English version by Daniela Stoican)