Investment injection
Pharmaceutical company Bioton, which specializes in human-insulin and hepatitis-B vaccine production, increased its revenue by 40.9 percent last year to reach zł.213.9 million. The company's profits leaped from zł.33.4 million in 2005 to zł.96.5 million last year - a 188.4-percent surge.
"These are very good results, because sales on the markets with big prospects will only begin this year," Bioton's president Adam Wilczęga said.
"Considering the sales plan in Poland, the export plan and our acquisitions, our revenue this year could reach as much as zł.400 million," Wilczęga predicted. However, he added that it is still too early to speculate on this year's profit, as it is dependent on too many outside factors.
Foreign expansion is where the company plans to focus its energies. Bioton wants to have 10 percent of the global insulin market in five to six years' time. Currently, the company estimates its market share to be around two percent.
In February, Bioton signed a $20 (zł.59) million deal with a Russian distributor and is currently negotiating with two other distributors. In Ukraine, the company is to acquire 100 percent of the country's leading insulin producer Indar (in which it already has a 30-percent stake) in the first half of the year. Through its daughter company, Scigen, Bioton also is planning to enter Asian markets, especially in China and India.
Bioton is currently constructing three plants abroad - in Israel (set for completion in H1 this year), as well as in India and in China, which are to start production in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
The company noted high growth on the Polish market in 2006. It sold 38 percent more insulin than in the previous year and holds a 24-25-percent share in the Polish insulin market. "This year we expect further 20-percent growth," Wilczęga said.
The company will also invest $40-50 (zł.119-148) million in a plasma-fractionating plant in Mielec, where blood-derivative products will be produced. As Wilczęga disclosed, Bioton is currently negotiating with a leading global blood-derivative products maker. "The agreement should be signed by the end of March," he said.
