The Year 2000 - A Dynamic, Demanding and Successful Year for Lek
Ljubljana, 26 January – In the year 2000 the Slovene pharmaceutical company Lek exceeded its sales objectives. In this period Lek had sales of 54.9 billion SIT, hereby achieving 18% sales growth as compared to the year 1999, and surpassing the plan by 6%.
Last year the largest sales were achieved by Lek’s product Amoksiklav with a 20.1% share in Lek’s total sales. In the year 2000 Lek started its sales also in the EU markets.
Lek’s domestic sales were 13.6 billion SIT (24.9% of Lek’s total sales), in the Central and Eastern Europe the company had 35.5% of its total sales, 14.6% in the former SU countries, 7.9% in industrialized countries, 11.2% in developing countries and 5.9% in the markets of the South-Eastern Europe.
The highest sales growth was noted in the Russian Federation market, where the macro-economic circumstances stabilized, while based on the experience from the economic depression Lek substantially improved its management of risks in that area.
In the Central and Eastern Europe, where Lek is establishing its position among the largest pharmaceutical companies, its market position was further strengthened by a 11% sales growth as compared to the year before.
In the domestic market, pharmaceutical products and active pharmaceutical ingredients as well as self-medication drugs achieved a 11% sales growth. Domestic sales by other strategic business units have been stagnating, and consequently, total domestic sales rose by 5.8%.
The largest share in total sales is held by pharmaceutical products and active pharmaceutical ingredients, i.e. 82.7% (of which 73.8% by pharmaceutical products, and 8.9% by active pharmaceutical ingredients), followed by the over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in the amount of 7.7%, veterinary products 4.3%, cosmetics 3.7% and medical devices 1.6%.
The share of the new products in the year 2000 accounted for 8% of total sales.
Through its co-operation with the French company Sanofi-Synthelabo, Lek was ranked among those pharmaceutical companies in Slovenia that are able to provide the Slovene customers with novel therapeutic approaches. They include products used in the major therapeutic groups, i.e. treatment of cardiovascular diseases and of the central nervous system disorders.
In the domestic market, Lek is thus implementing its strategy through an extensive offer of quality drugs at moderate prices. The offer of prescription drugs is effectively complemented by over-the-counter medicines.
In the year 2000 Lek’s efforts were aimed at strenghtening its market position through external growth, which resulted in the company’s acquisition of the Rumanian pharmaceutical company PharmaTech in the beginning of 2001.
In the year 2001 Lek will proceed with its acquisition activities in some of its markets, giving priority to those representing a special opportunity for the company.
The highlights of the year 2001 will be: maintaining double digit growth, improving the performance of development activities, international listing of Lek’s GDRs, focusing on the 5 key markets and the product Amoksiklav.