Biolab invests R$ 450 million in new plant in Minas Gerais
National pharmaceutical company Biolab, owned by brothers Cleiton and Paulo de Castro Marques, is to invest R$ 450 million in a new industrial complex in Pouso Alegre (MG). The unit will produce up to 200 million units a year and will triple the laboratory's manufacturing capacity, which last year grossed R$ 1.25 billion.
The leader in sales and prescriptions of drugs used in cardiology in the Brazilian market, according to consultancy IMS Health, Biolab has three other factories, with a total capacity of 100 million units per year, and has been planning the construction of its fourth unit since 2014.
According to the laboratory's president, Cleiton de Castro Marques, the Pouso Alegre plant will be Biolab's largest. The focus of the new production will be the Brazilian market, but since the unit will have certifications from the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its equivalent in Europe, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the idea is to also export medicines. The new plant is expected to create 500 direct jobs.
The pharmaceutical company even bought land in the Minas Gerais municipality of Estiva, which is close to Pouso Alegre, in order to carry out the project, but issues related to infrastructure resulted in a change of plans and city.
In Minas Gerais, there is a tax incentive of 3% of the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS), but what brought the laboratory to Pouso Alegre - today, all its factories are in São Paulo - was the consolidation of the city as an industrial and pharmaceutical hub. The city is home to União Química and Cimed, among other pharmaceutical companies owned by members of the Marques family - who also own the four-star Marques Plaza Hotel.
In two or three months, said the businessman, earthworks should begin and the unit will start operating between 2020 and 2021. The unit's installed capacity will be gradually filled, in line with the growth in demand for the medicines in its portfolio - especially cardiology, which accounts for 50% of sales, dermatology and gynecology.
Of the total to be invested, said Marques, 40% will come from own resources and 60% in financing, from the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) and other sources. "Most of the disbursements should take place in 2019," he said. Today, Biolab's largest manufacturing center is in Jandira, dedicated to the production of solid non-hormonal drugs. There, the laboratory has just invested a further R$ 50 million in a gelatine capsule factory, which is due to start operating in August.
At the Taboão da Serra plant, the pharmaceutical company produces solids and hormone injectables. The Bragança Paulista plant, meanwhile, is dedicated to the production of functional foods, semi-solids and liquids. Biolab is also Eurofarma's partner in Orygen, which will produce monoclonal antibodies in São Carlos (SP).
In addition to a research and development center in Itapecerica da Serra (SP), which has 100 professionals, Biolab has a research and development center in Toronto, Canada, scheduled to open next month. "The first step is the inauguration of the research center in Canada, with the production of dossiers that meet the regulatory authorities in the United States and Europe. The second step is the certification of the new factory," explained Marques.
For 2017, the forecast is for growth of 8% to 10% in Biolab's turnover, which has noticed, as an effect of the crisis, the migration to boxes of medicines with fewer units. "We still feel this migration to lower ticket products," he added.
Even so, the decision was made to invest in the new plant since the pharmaceutical market is more resilient than other areas and the industry itself has long cycles. For this year, the national medicines market is expected to grow by 8%. Asked about the possibility of going shopping, the businessman commented that quality pharmaceutical assets in the country are expensive. "We want to grow organically," he said.
Last year, the Castro Marques brothers (Cleiton, Paulo and Fernando) ended a legal dispute over a cross-shareholding in Biolab and União Química. While Cleiton and Paulo kept Biolab, Fernando took control of União Química on his own.