Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - October 2008 - (Page EC7)

Business Focus: Turkey Review Sanovel: From local to global Twenty five years since its inception, Sanovel has quickly emerged as one of Turkey’s generics giants. With the country’s second largest sales force (1200 people), the company devotes aggressive sales and marketing attention to a portfolio of more than 150 products in critical therapeutic areas, especially chronic diseases. About 75% of Sanovel’s $300 million sales last year came from the company’s 10 leading products, including the anti-inflammatory blockbuster Majezik, the cholesterol-lowering agent Ator and the proton pump inhibitor, Lansor. “We are like a multinational in that our top 10 products are group leaders and sometimes we even surpass the sales of multinational companies,” says Ahmet Toksöz, a Sanovel board member. In 2006, the company completed a new 40000-m2 production site, enabling its expansion into Turkish neighbour markets such as Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. And in January 2009, Toksöz says he expects to break ground on a new biotech facility that will symbolize the company’s first entry in high-tech medicine. Sanovel has agreements with companies to register products in Europe through its holding company in Holland and subsidiaries in France and Germany, and it will explore acquiring European companies. Yet, the core of the company’s growth strategy is to establish sales and marketing presence in every new foreign market. “We can compete with most local and even European companies production-wise, capacity-wise and cost-wise.” says Toksöz. Bilim Pharmaceuticals: Building bridges The towering growth of this 55-year-old manufacturer has been iconic of the remarkable inroads made by Turkish generics companies in recent years. On the heels of significant investments in chronic disease therapeutic groups, Bilim Pharmaceuticals has become Turkey’s second largest local pharma company, with 2007 sales of $370 million and 85 million units. It has presence in more than 40 foreign markets and exports to 24 countries worldwide. With a newly completed production site outside Istanbul, it hopes to soon export to EU nations and the US. “We are trying to adapt ourselves for these markets,” says Bülent Karaagaç, Bilim’s president. “The new plant will be the key element in this development strategy.” Bilim will also utilize the new site’s 125-million-unit yearly capacity to attract toll-manufacturing partners and to expand exports to Turkey neighbouring markets where it has formed marketing teams. Building upon a menu of 120 products, the marketing-oriented company will continue launching 10–20 drugs/year in market-critical sectors of diabetes, respiratory, cardiovascular and central nervous system. With ever-growing challenges brought by Turkey’s intense generics competition and a more restrictive regulation environment, Karaagaç says Bilim is positioned to sustain double-digit growth for coming years. “If you know how to play by the rules, you don’t lose,” he says. www.pharmexeceurope.com 7 http://www.adeka.com.tr http://www.adeka.com.tr http://www.pharmexeceurope.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - October 2008

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - October 2008 Contents News and Analysis Calendar BioFutures Strategy Fundamentals Executive Recruitment: Small Company, Big Career Executive Recruitment: Instant Pharma Named Patient Programmes Executive Review: Turkey

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - October 2008

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