State to take greater role in formation of Farmacja Polska

The State Treasury is beginning to have had enough of watching the hopeless negotiations between the three Polfa factories – Warszawa, Pabianice and Tarchomino to merge into the new pharmaceutical holding, Farmacja Polska. What's more, Deputy Treasury Minister Józef Woźniakowski maintains that the presidents of the Polfa companies are blocking the possibility of investigating the financial state of their companies As a result the Ministry will now start playing an active role in the merger process and announced determined steps to speed up the process, including changes to the management of the companies, as well as to limit the power of their trade unions. Due to the lack of cooperation between the firms, the value of their exports is constantly dropping, by 13% in 2002 alone. "The situation is the effect of the conflict between them, as the main aim of their strategy is to take over each others clients. This is damaging the interest of the economy," said Woźniakowski. In his opinion, the Polfas do not want to use the services of Ciech Polfa, a drug distributor which has a presence on 11 foreign markets, but instead prefer to sign deals with small companies. The Minister asked the pharmaceutical producers to explain this state of affairs, but they never replied to his formal request. (Parkiet, p. 1) M.M.