Sanofi-Synthélabo - Lek d.o.o. joint venture starts to operate
Ljubljana, 18 January – In the following days Sanofi-Synthelabo-Lek joint venture, recently founded by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Synthelabo and Lek, is starting to operate . The new company will be dealing in manufacture, marketing, registration, distribution, sales and import of Sanofi-Synthelabo’s major pharmaceutical products in the markets of Slovenia and Croatia, and later on also in other countries of this region, namely in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania. The products that the new company will offer in the Slovene market, also include AprovelŽ and PlavixŽ , ranking among the world’s top products in their indication group.
The initial capital of the joint venture with Sanofi-Synthelabo having a 51% share, and Lek having a 49% share, amounts to SIT 5 million.
The licence products that the new company Sanofi-Synthelabo-Lek will help to introduce in the above mentioned markets, mainly include those from the main therapeutic areas, i.e. for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, central nervous system disorders and cancer.
In the contractually determined territory where Sanofi-Synthelabo-Lek will provide patients with its products, total sales in the following 3 years are estimated to reach EURO 9 million. The market share in the Slovene pharmaceutical market is estimated to reach 0.5% this year, in 2001 it should increase to 1.1%, and in 2002 to 1.6%.
In the following days the drug AprovelŽ (irbesartan), one of the so-called blockbusters of Sanofi-Synthelabo, will appear in the market. It represents a new standard in the effective treatment of arterial hypertension which is the major cause for coronary disease and stroke. The drug is now registered in a number of countries all over the world, while in the Slovene market it will come in two potencies: 28 tablets of 150 mg irbesartan, or 28 tablets of 300 mg irbesartan.