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About CHEMO

Media: Correo Farmaceutico (www.correofarmaceutico.com)
Date: 02/11/08

Chemo prepares itself for the American adventure

The multinational Spanish company Chemo, specialized in the chemical and pharmaceutical areas, has announced that its plant Leon Farma, located in said city, obtained the license granted by the agency of the United States that regulates drugs (FDA, by its English acronym) to market its products in the United States.

The group invested 20 million euros in Leon Farma plant focused in the research and development activity of innovative products for women’s health. An additional investment of 20 million euros is planned for the next five years, to be used in the R&D departments of this plant.

Chemo managing director, Leandro Sigman, explained to CF (Correo Farmacéutico) that “the approval granted by the FDA represents a great leap forward. From the economic point of view, it means a new way of doing business since the US pharmaceutical market represents half of the world’s pharmaceutical market. It also represents a qualitative leap since it means that demanding standards have to be complied with”. Five women’s health-related products have been registered already, and there are plans to register six more this year.

In order to sell within the American giant market, all links in the production chain must be approved by the American agency. So Chemo had to obtain first, the FDA license approval for its plant in Italy which supplies the active pharmaceutical ingredients to the plant in León province. Precisely, this is one important feature the group: “We never manufacture pharmaceutical products that do not have our active pharmaceutical ingredient”, pointed out.

Chemo has three business units: a trading unit which sells raw material not manufactured by the group to pharmaceutical companies; a generic unit which manufactures raw material and finished pharmaceutical products (“we manufacture, register, release products for sale; we are owners of the registered product and then license to generic pharmaceutical companies such as Stada, Teva, Cinfa or Normon", explained Sigman), and a third unit which develops and markets its own sus branded name gynecology drugs.

Bet on R&D

""We have two research lines: women’s health and oncology”. The last one is currently developing therapeutic vaccines for pathologies such as lung or skin cancer.

In 2007, with over 2,800 employees (650 in Spain), its turnover exceeded 400 million of euros. In 2008, the company's expected global figure is 450 million, according to the company forecast.

"The main product in the generic area is omeprazole and its family-related drug lansoprazole. In the cardiology field, iosartan is our important product, and in the respiratory field, we have formoterol”, highlighted Sigman. He further stated that “we have a strong presence with our own line of contraceptive products in hormone replacement therapy and another important fertility product.”

For Chemo managing director, the future of the company lies in the international expansion of the group and in the continuous research activity. At present, Chemo has 10 industrial plants in Spain, Italy, France, India and Argentina, 14 marketing offices, and participation in different pharmaceutical companies. It is present in 24 countries in Europe, America and Asia. Chemo will start operating in Germany this year, and it is about to market its products in the Unites States, country in which an acquisition is planned to be made to reinforce the research field in gynecology.

Note extracted from El Correo Farmaceutico print edition.