Riyadh – Brazilian pharma company Eurofarma signed this Tuesday (29) a memorandum of agreement with Saudi Industrial Clusters, the country’s industrial development agency. The signing took place at the Future Investment Initiative, a conference that takes place in Riyadh that will feature president Jair Bolsonaro, who’s at the Saudi capital.
The company’s executive director Walker Lahmann (2nd from the L, pictured) told ANBA that Eurofarma considers expanding outside Latin America, and that Saudi Arabia is an investment option. “For the last ten years, the company has gone through an internationalization process throughout Latin America and is now in 20 countries in the region, having in fact six plants outside Brazil,” he said.
This process is coming to an end,. he says, and now the company looks for other regions. “We have looked out other opportunities to invest and grow in Saudi Arabia too,” said.
Thus, the signing of the agreement with Saudi Industrial Clusters. “This signing is aimed at having the Industrial Clusters’ help to survey data and needs and understand how Saudi Arabian pharma market works,” he stressed. “It’s a very interesting pharma market, that we know, but we want to know other specifics, more details, and do some research that may support our decision to invest here,” he added.
The executive explained that, when the company studies a deal abroad, there are always many operation options, such as exporting products directly from Brazil to a local distributor, establishing a sales team in the country – but also send goods from the headquarters – and producing locally. “In this case, having a plant,” he said on the later possibility.
“Every operation has these three possibilities. The feasibility study that’ll be done will answer which is the ideal model to bring here,” he said. The same goes to products that will be produced in an eventual plant. “I think all of these models are possible,” he concluded.
The pharma industry is one of the long-term strategic priorities for diversifying the Saudi economy. Recently, representatives of Saudi Industrial Clusters and other pharma organizations were at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo to promote the Arab country’s market to companies from Brazil.
Saudi Industrial Clusters also signed agreements with Instituto Butantã in São Paulo, a benchmark in vaccine manufacturing in Brazil, and Aeris Energia, a Brazilian wind blades producer.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
