Biolab advances abroad and prepares to enter the USA
Biolab, one of Brazil's leading pharmaceutical companies, is increasing its exposure to foreign markets, while at the same time moving ahead with investments, now estimated at almost R$ 1 billion due to the cost of equipment and building materials, in a new, modern industrial complex in Pouso Alegre (MG).
In January, six months after buying the Canadian laboratory Exzell Pharma, owner of brands such as Swiss Naturals and Salinex, it obtained registration for Vonau Flash (ondansetron), an innovative drug against nausea and vomiting with almost immediate oral dissolution, in Saudi Arabia. This has opened the way to selling the drug, which in the Arab market will carry the Mundell brand, to the 22 countries of the Arab League.
The company already exported Vonau to Ecuador and Colombia and supplied another product, Encrise (vasopressin), used in the treatment of septic shock, to Saudi Arabia. The next step is to take Encrise to Central American countries, Mexico, where it will be distributed by another Brazilian pharmaceutical company, Eurofarma, and Canada.
"We are seeking approval for different products in Canada," Biolab's president and partner, Cleiton de Castro Marques, told Valor. According to him, in the international market, the strategy is to reach countries with a strong currency, such as the United States. And the world's largest pharmaceutical market is a likely destination in the short to medium term. "We're going to enter with less complex products, but with some degree of innovation," he said.
Biolab has opened a company in the United States and has been accumulating lessons in neighboring Canada, where it arrived in 2017 with its own research, development and innovation center. There, all dossiers are already prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an American agency with duties similar to those of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
But its business exposure to the international market is still timid, at around 1% last year, not including the Canadian operation. According to Marques, the proposal is to use the industrial capacity in Brazil to serve other markets. The acquisition in Canada, he explained, took into account Exzell's robust sales and distribution structure and the country's interest in attracting investors to the sector. "There, investment in pharmaceuticals is strategic," he said.
Brazil, the world's sixth largest drug market, is also attractive, but lacks an effective long-term policy for the sector, in his opinion. Biolab is Eurofarma's partner in Orygen, one of the "superpharmaceutical companies" conceived by the federal government for the national production of biosimilars. Since its creation, the project has lost two other major participants, Cristália and Libbs, which continue to conduct research in this area on their own. "In the PDP [Partnership for Productive Development] model, we have no interest," he said.
Even so, Biolab is sticking to its plan to put its largest plant into operation in the country. With an initial budget of R$ 500 million, the new plant was announced in 2017. Since then, the estimated outlay to build the industrial complex, which will have 80,000 square meters of built area, has almost doubled and is approaching R$ 1 billion.
"In addition to the increase in infrastructure costs, with steel and cement, the equipment has become more expensive," said Marques. Two areas of the new unit, which will be the company's largest, are already in operation, but the actual production of medicines should begin in the second half of 2024, after all the stages of certification and approval by Anvisa.
Biolab, which had revenues of R$ 2.5 billion last year, has diversified operations, including the PET market, but still finds almost 50% of its revenues in the cardiology portfolio. With 45 launches last year, it has a portfolio of 425 branded and generic drugs, including various presentations, and 81 items in the veterinary line (Avert). (Valor Econômico newspaper, Empresas/SP - 24/02/2023)