São Paulo – Bassim Khoury, CEO of pharmaceutical company Pharmacare, is in Brazil seeking business opportunities. He should participate in fair CPhI South America, to take place from August 21st to 23rd, in São Paulo, and will meet with representatives of national companies in the pharmaceutical sector.
"We have our mind open to all possibilities. We may sell our products here, we may produce under license here or we may take some Brazilian products to our region,” said Khoury, on visiting on Monday (20) the offices of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
Pharmacare is the third largest pharmaceutical industry in Palestine. Established in 1985 in the city of Beitunia, close to Ramallah, Pharmacare has a factory in Palestine and another in Malta, in Europe. The company produces 85 kinds of medication, among them antibiotics, antidepressants, anti-inflammatories, dermatology medication and also asthma, diabetes and hypertension, among others. According to Khoury, there are also 40 new products in the pipeline.
With offices in Russia, Belarus, Yemen and Romania, the Palestinian company exports over 50% of production, mainly to Germany, Great Britain and Poland, as well as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia and Slovakia. Now, according to Khoury, it is seeking the Latin American market.
"If you look to the world map of the pharmaceutical sector today, you will see that Latin America is the world’s fastest growing generic product market. The countries of Latin America are growing 20% each year in the generic product sector. This is my first visit and I want to see what is in the country,” pointed out the businessman. In May, Pharmacare in Palestine underwent an inspection by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and has already received authorisation to export to Brazil. After a week in the country, the businessman should visit Chile, where he will have business meetings with government representatives.
Eyeing both the brand medication and generics, Khoury stated that his company has great capacity to compete in the sale of generics. "We are capable of selling generics even in countries in which they are very cheap, like the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is the number one in generics worldwide and we are successful in a competitive market like this one, so we can sell anywhere worldwide.”
Pharmacare is already preparing its entry in Brazil through an agreement that is being negotiated with multinational Sanofi. "We are finalizing an agreement with them. It is a three-part agreement that also involves a German company. The raw material would come to us through the German company, we would make the products in Palestine and later ship them to Brazil, for Sanofi to pack and sell on the Brazilian market,” he explained.
However, Khoury says that this is just the beginning of his search for business in Brazil and pointed out that he expects new contacts during his visit to the CPhI fair in South America, the largest in the pharma-chemical and pharmaceutical sector.
"I came to the fair to see the potential for other contracts. The event includes the presence of the main companies in the world. It is a good place to start learning about Brazil as a market and to feel the potential business opportunities,” he finished off.
Pharmacare counts on 400 employees in total, of which 280 work in Palestine. Annual company revenues are approximately US$ 35 million.
*Translated by Mark Ament
