Pharma Manufacture Latvia

[Rebbeca Schulke]

JSCGrindex (branded as Grindex), or simply Grindeks, is an internationally operating Latvian pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Riga, Latvia. Its portfolio consists of original products, generics, and active pharmaceutical ingredients. It mostly focuses on cardiovascular, central nervous system, anti-cancer, and diabetes medicines. Grindex is the leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in the Baltic States. In 2021, Grindex imported products to more than 90 countries.

The chairman of the council is Kirovs Lipmans, who has taken the position of Grindeks since 2003.Other members of the Council of Grindeks include Anna Lipmane, Filips Lipmans, Arkadiy Vertkin, and Janis Naglis.

"Grindeks" specializes in therapeutic groups of medicines for the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system and anticancer medicines.[1] In 2009, under the auspices of the Institute of Organic Synthesis of Latvia, independent researchers discovered a new cardioprotective substance GX-EG, which turned out to be 40 times more active than mildronate produced and exported by "Grindeks". The company has acquired the rights to conduct further research on GX-EG and will begin phase 1 clinical trials in 2020.[1]

Grindeks manufactures over 60 final dosage form (FDF) pharmaceutical products and exports these to over 90 countries worldwide. The portfolio contains both original and generic FDF products. Grindeks' FDFs range from solid form products, solutions for injections to ointments and syrups.

Corporate social responsibility is an important element of Grindeks development. Additionally, to the annual business objectives, Grindeks has set a target to improve the company's activity in the corporate social responsibility area.[2]The company has defined, that three key priorities of corporate social responsibility are:

In 2020 the Grindeks Group achieved historically the sharpest increase in turnover and profit.[3] Turnover of the Grindeks Group reached 187.0 million euros. It is which is 45.6 million euros or 32% more than in 2019. Profit amounted to 19.0 million euro, which is 5.6 million euros or 42% more than in 2019.

The consolidated, provisional financial data of Grindeks Group shows that in the first half of 2021 the Group has reached record high turnover and profit.[4] In this period the turnover of Grindeks Group reached 115,6 million euros, which is 21,1 million euros or 22% more than in the first half of 2020. The profit of the Group in the first half of 2021 amounted to 19,8 million euros, which are 7 million euros or 55% more than in the first half of 2020.

Grindeks Group's record-high profit and turnover have been achieved due to a significant increase in demand for the cardiovascular, central nervous system, and hospital segment medicines produced by the Group, as well as the hospital segment offered by JSC Grindeks subsidiary company JSC Kalceks.

Following the 2011-2013 fiscal crisis and tightening of state budgets, both the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors are again growing in Latvia.

We maintain our forecast that the medical device market will grow at a CAGR of 3.7% in local currency terms over the 2015-2020 period. This reflects our revised forecast for annual real GDP growth which we expect to register at 3-4% through to 2020. Medical device market growth will peak in euro terms at 4.0% in 2018, before falling back to 3.8% by 2020.

The state has considerable influence on the medical services sector in Latvia. All of the primary hospitals and rehabilitation centers are state-owned and receive centralized financing from the state budget. Therefore, a large part of drug and pharmaceutical procurement passes through state-organized tenders. However, the retail and wholesale market for medical products is left to private businesses.

Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania have signed the Joint Baltic Drug Procurement Agreement. This agreement may increase the volume of ordered medicines, thus attracting interest from more pharmaceutical companies to participate in tenders and putting manufacturers under pressure to offer discounts on pharmaceutical prices.

Some prescribed drugs, such as those used for diabetes, HIV, and TB, are subsidized by the state, and Latvian authorities have indicated that fighting tuberculosis, tick-borne encephalitis, and HIV are key priorities. However, U.S. pharmaceutical companies have indicated that there is insufficient funding for innovative medicines.

A pharmaceuticals company could enter the market either by opening a branch office in Latvia or by approaching a Latvian wholesale company that already has an established brand name and base of clients.

All drugs sold in Latvia must be certified by the State Drugs Agency before entering the market. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certification is not enough to sell drugs in Latvia, although FDA results will be helpful in the certification process.

Leading Sub-Sectors

There are excellent opportunities for both innovative and generic drugs.

Growth in large scale imaging equipment will again reach 2010 levels by 2020, while personalized devices such as pacemakers and dental equipment is back to prior levels and growing at 3% to 4% per annum.

Opportunities

Please see the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union dedicated to European public procurement.

TED Home

Latvian Export and Import Directory

Latvia puts a significant emphasis on public health and disease prevention schemes. As such, there are numerous opportunities in vaccines and medicines for TB, tick-borne encephalitis, diabetes, HIV, flu, and other diseases.

Web Resources

The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Latvia

State Agency of Medicines of Latvia

Latvian Investment and Development Agency

Latvian Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Industry overview

In this new series, we interview pharmaceutical professionals and learn more about the pharma industry and the companies they work for. You would be surprised at how much they have to share! And we promise none of that pharma and business jargon.

Didzis Skards: every company should cooperate and finance these activities, and the bigger your company is, the bigger your responsibility towards society. Sooner or later, it will come back in one way or another.

Nowadays, it is trendy to say that a company is sustainable. In Olainfarm, Sustainability is closely linked to corporate governance and can be seen in our actions. It is a sustainable approach to manufacturing processes, taking care of the environment, the development of our employees, as well as social responsibility towards all stakeholders.

What do you find the most challenging about working for this company/pharma industry? If there are any, can you share a few differences in how pharma companies operate in the Baltic regions?

In recent years, a lot has been done at the national and manufacturer levels, but we should understand that these changes will be visible only in the long term. Pharma companies, like every other industry, will likely try to cut production costs to somehow compete in the market. In the upcoming years, I am afraid that the war started by Russia in Ukraine, so the rising energy prices and the current economic instability in the world can have the opposite effect on this switch to European suppliers. No matter what, I still believe there will always be a demand for European quality standards and reliable API sources, especially for local manufacturers.

European legislation prohibits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, but allows drug manufacturers to provide information to the public on health and diseases. Our aim was to measure the frequency of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media and assess their compliance with international and European standards.

Materials on health/disease and treatments were collected between April and September 2015 from 12 newspapers and magazines and six online portals. Disease awareness campaigns were assessed using a previously developed instrument based on the WHO Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug promotion and European standards (EU law and pharmaceutical industry self-regulatory guidelines). Collected materials were used to examine the information provided on medical conditions and their diagnosis and treatment. The inter-rater reliability was calculated.

The compliance of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media with international and European standards is low. This raises concerns about the nature of information being conveyed. Through lack of balance, missing sponsorship information, and misleading or incomplete information, these campaigns could contribute to inaccurate self-diagnosis and generate demand among those who might not need medical treatment.

One key concern is that campaigns could contribute to overdiagnosis which occurs when people are labelled with or treated for a disease that would never cause them harm, leading to the overuse of further tests and treatments [9]. Overdiagnosis happens in a range of common conditions and appears to be increasing [10]. The pharmaceutical and medical device industries, which aim to maximize health but also has a conflicting interest in expanding product sales, are one of the recognized drivers of overdiagnosis [1, 9].

Disease awareness or condition-oriented campaigns can be effective tools in familiarizing consumers with a disease and a specific pharmaceutical intervention and raise therefore ethical and public health questions similar to those of direct-to-consumer drug promotion [11]. Bearing this in mind, it is pertinent to explore whether the information conveyed in such campaigns is meeting current legal and ethical standards and to distinguish legitimate health information from promotional activities.

3a8082e126