After losing the momentum provided by prescription drugs a few years ago, the pharmaceutical Family-owned Catalan companies had to find their own way. sector dominated by multinationals, with high innovation and regulatory costs, either through specialization (such as Almirall, Ferrer and Esteve, although there are also healthcare divisions) or by focusing on over-the-counter products or personal care (Uriach). To take these paths, founding families have lost weight in management and industry executives unrelated to these epics have gained, but there is no single recipe.
Esteve, whose roots date back seven generations and has started to reap the fruits of his reforms, is discussed again. The company has given Esteve Healthcare an input to German private investment firm Lubea as a stable partner with 26% of the capital and a future option on the stock market.As Almirall and Reig Jofre did in their time. It now plans to grow even faster with a good economic buffer to invest more in research and development (R&D) and the manufacture of its own drugs to advance in an industry where size is highly competitive and size matters. The family owns 100% of Corporación Químico Farmacéutica Esteve, which owns 50% of Esteve Teijin Healthcare; 50% of İsdin, which they shared with Puig, another large family perfumery and cosmetics group; and 15% from Hangzou Jiuyuan Gene Engineering.
This strategy is led by Esteve and is co-led by Staffan Schüberg, an executive from the Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck, who in 2018 replaced Albert Esteve, a member of the family that owns it, and became chairman. Therefore, no member of the clan has an executive function. The group embarked on a radical restructuring in 2016 with the inclusion of four independent people on the board of directors., then with the entry of the CEO, and now with the opening of his capital. In addition, it has hired Rodrigo Bonilla, an executive with more than 26 years of industry experience, to manage its pharmaceutical subsidiary focused on central nervous system, cancer pain and ophthalmology.
Buy “Deals”
During the presentation of the agreement with Lubea together with the Finance Director José Luis Urbieta, The Swedish executive stressed that the money will be used to “buy deals, acquisitions or mergers” that will allow them to incorporate new drugs into their business.. The group, which covers all the activities of the company, received 643 million euros in 2022 and made a pre-tax profit of 99 million, three times the previous year.
Another of the classic pharmaceutical industries, Uriach is chaired by Lluís Cantarell of Nestlé, the first non-family owner to reach the fifth generation since 2021. The change began in 2012 when Oriol Segarra, an executive from Dutch Synthon Holding, joined as CEO.. The firm has turned to the personal care business and internationalization. In 2021, it got rid of the pharmaceutical division and factories in Barcelona’s towns of Sant Fost de Campsentelles and Palau-solità i Plegamans and was bought by the German company Sidroga. It expects to reach a turnover of 450-500 million Euros in 2025 with 80 to 100 million operating results, acquisitions and its own organic growth. It closed 2021 with a turnover of 235 million, an increase of 42%. The main reasons for the increase are the resurgence of activity in many markets and the acquisition of Sidroga.
Ferrer also has a non-family director, Mario Rovirosa, and the founder’s heir, Sergio Ferrer Salat, and a smaller sister, Beatriz, as major shareholders. It is mainly dedicated to philanthropy. The group, which decided to focus on its own products in the field of hospital neurological and chest diseases, benefited from all its earnings.It allocates more than 50% to social projects.
With a turnover of more than 560 million and a profit of approximately 15 million, the group has focused on brand-name drugs, its own innovation and therapeutic areas such as neurology and pneumology. It was founded in 1953 by Carlos Ferrer-Salat with his cousin Jorge Ferrer Batlle. Ferrer-Salat served as president until his death in 1998, and Ferrer Batlle retired in the 1970s. The firm’s top executives such as Rafael Foguet, who has been a senior executive for 31 years, followed by others such as Jordi Ramentol.Until he reached Rovirosa, who was promoted to CEO two years later after joining in 2016. It came from Italian Chiesi and Almirall.
different strategy
Almirall, which has been listed on the stock market since 2007, had appointed Carlos Gallardo, son of former president Jorge Gallardo, to its first managerial position a year ago, unlike the strategy of its competitors in the same industry in Catalonia. And then they added the CEO after Gianfranco Nazzi left. In this way, they put an end to the constant replacement of CEOs since 2017: finally, a family member from the third generation regains control. It’s about expertise. To achieve this, they rely on the European launch of Lebrikizumab, a drug they see potential against dermatitis. It also highlights Ilumetri sales. medicine against psoriasis, which accounts for about 15% of the company’s sales in 2022 alone. All this leads him to tie his future to dermatology as a source of growth. It also keeps the option to make purchases open.
Actually, Increasing its sales by 4.4 percent to 870 million euros in 2022, Almirall reduced its profit to 33 million euros with a decrease of nearly 60 percent.made one of its major breakthroughs in 1997 with the acquisition of Prodesfarma, which was founded by Antoni Vila Casas, another classic of the pharmaceutical industry, and sold the Aquilea phytotherapeutic laboratory to Uriach in 2005.
Along the same lines, other Catalan pharmaceutical companies such as Almirall have chosen the family to take the helm, such as Grego (Leti) and Reig Jofre, headed by the representative of the third family generation, Ignasi Biosca. Each has devised his own way to adapt to the new times, gain muscle and continue to grow in a very competitive environment..