Our Strategy
The growth of Blau Farmacêutica goes through the following fronts to be explored in the health value chain:
We invested and intend to continue investing in the optimization and increase of the productive capacity with modern and high technology equipment, adopting measures to increase the operational efficiency, readjusting the packaging areas and reallocating certain production lines to other productive areas, among others initiatives.
To this end, the Company plans to invest R$1 billion, of which R$ 700 million of the proceeds from its Initial Public Offering of Shares and R$300 million from its own cash flow, in its new plant in the northeastern region of Brazil, in the city of Recife, state of Pernambuco. This new plant, known as P1000, will be the new technology platform, which will have 36 production lines, with 20 additional lines and 16 current lines that will be transferred to the P1000 plant.
Be at the forefront of biotechnology and be the most innovative and digital industry, focused on the verticalization of inputs.
At the end of 2020 we completed, within the industrial complex in Cotia, the construction of a factory with two lines of high production capacity of biotechnological active pharmaceutical ingredients, completely independent, following the guidelines established in regulations of the European Union (EMA) and the United States (FDA).
The action aims at the verticalization process, as well as the mitigation of the risks of a possible shortage of strategic inputs and, at the same time, expands the geographical scope and profitability of our business.
In February 2021, the factory unit received Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) qualification by ANVISA. This plant will be the Company’s biotechnological industrial platform and will supply the productive inputs of the biosimilars necessary for the production of its medicines. Such inputs are already subject to clinical studies of comparability in humans, carried out by European research institutes.
The Company expects that its independence in obtaining these inputs will ensure the launch of its drugs globally, positioning it as a relevant player in this segment.
This will bring us several benefits, such as:
- Independence in the production of strategic products
- Ability to sell API to third parties
- Ability to export finished products to third parties with high competitiveness
- Increase in profitability
- Reduced exchange exposure
Hemarus is another verticalization front, focused on the blood products segment, and we started this operation of plasma collection banks in the United States. Our first plasma collection center was inaugurated in June 2021. For more information visit: https://hemarus-plasma.com/
High complexity and relevant portfolio for the institutional market with continuous investment in RD&I.
Our investments in RD&I continue to grow. With the new RD&I center opened this year, we have the capacity to work with 60 projects in different stages of the pipeline, in the most diverse therapeutic classes.
We intend to further increase investments in RD&I in order to increase the pipeline and also expand into new therapeutic areas, with a focus on products with high added value, in order to further expand our current portfolio, which has an average price equivalent to R $ 153.00 per serving. For this, we have partnerships with universities and scientific groups for the development of biotechnological, biological and synthetic medicines with high added value, including oncological medicines.
In March 2021, our RD&I pipeline was composed of 114 products, capable of reaching, if they were to be sold, a market estimated at approximately R $ 7.3 billion in sales volume (according to data from IQVIA referring to sales volume) total of these products in the 12-month period ended March 31, 2021), including 42 products (or 67 presentations) already under development, of which 19 are specialty products, 18 oncological products and 5 organic products (or 28 presentations of specialties, 31 oncological presentations and 8 biological presentations), with an estimated market of approximately R $ 2.8 billion in sales volume (according to data from IQVIA referring to the total sales volume of these products in the 12-month period ended March 31, 2021); and 72 products (or 125 presentations) in the initial phase and / or prospecting, which represent a market estimated at approximately R $ 4.6 billion in sales volume (according to data from IQVIA referring to the total sales volume of these products in the 12-month period ended March 31, 2021).
Of the total of our RD&I pipeline, approximately 28% of the products have the possibility of being the first similar and / or generic products on the market. In addition, our business development projects (product licensing) under negotiation have an estimated market of approximately R $ 5.3 billion in sales volume (according to data from IQVIA referring to the total sales volume of these products in the 12-month period ended on 31 March 2021). Thus, our total market, considering products in our current portfolio, products in our RD&I pipeline and those that make up our business development projects, would add up to R $ 17.3 billion in sales volume (data from IQVIA referring to the total sales volume of these products in the 12-month period ended March 31, 2021).
In addition, in line with our strategy of focusing on RD&I and optimizing our development capacity, during the year 2020, we obtained the registration of eleven new products and our plant of biotechnological inputs with ANVISA, in addition to the registration of 24 new medicines in Latin America, further expanding our portfolio.
We believe that there is growth potential to be captured in the highly complex medication market and we continue to focus on expanding the portfolio, especially in products that are complementary to the current portfolio.
Leverage the portfolio from Brazil to all of Latin America and expand the portfolio as a whole.
We intend to increase geographic expansion, through our subsidiaries, with the expansion of new registrations in Latin America.
In the last five years, we doubled the number of products registered in other Latin American countries (Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica), with a total of 181 products with active registrations until December 2020.
We also work on expanding the portfolio through strategic partnerships. Our strategy is based on product partnership contracts in the institutional segment, with transfers of technology and local production, both of inputs and medicines.
We have several advantages that help us capture this type of partnership:
- Leadership in the segment and broad current portfolio, with knowledge of the industry and the region
- Deep technical knowledge in the area of regulatory affairs, especially in Brazil
- Unique biological production capacity – inputs and medicines
- Expertise in producing complex products, difficult to replicate
- Regional footprint, offering capillarity in almost all of Latin America.
Consolidation of the institutional market with strategic acquisitions that support the Company’s perpetuity.
We actively monitor all market opportunities for expanding the portfolio and / or geographic presence via selected acquisitions of companies with products and brands with strong recognition and market presence.
The acquisition of strategic assets – products, technologies and / or productive capacity – helps us to further accelerate our growth.
This portfolio expansion can occur through acquisitions of selected companies or assets that have synergy with the current portfolio of the Company, adding gains of scale to its business model.
It is also part of the strategy to evaluate potential asset opportunities that expand the possibilities for verticalization of its industrial activities.
In 2020, we acquired 100% of Pharma Limirio (currently Blau Farmacêutica Goiás Ltda.), A company focused on the production of specialty products. The acquisition allows us to expand the productive capacity in this segment as well as to accelerate the production of new registrations granted by ANVISA.
In 2020, we made a JV (joint venture) in the United States with Hemarus Plasma, which has extensive experience in the plasma collection sector. In September 2021, the Company increased its interest in Hemarus Lauderhill from 51% to 64.16% and in Hemarus Plasma-Miami, LLC from 51% to 75.5%, with an option to purchase the complete operation in the future. The objective of this JV is to guarantee the independence of plasma collection and thus proceed with the strategy of verticalization of inputs.