GSK has completed investments worth seven million dollars in the plant of Braşov

• The company has begun a new investment of 11.9 million US dollars in a high-quality modern laboratory

American company GlaxoSmithKline has completed investments of seven million Euros in two production lines at the plant it owns in Braşov, and will become the only company in the pharmaceutical business to domestically manufacture brands known worldwide on a local level, Pascal Prigent, the CEO of GSK Romania announced yesterday. The investments have taken place over the last three years and have targeted the manufacturing of the drugs Seroxat (antidepressants) and Retrovir capsules (anti-HIV). Also this year, the company began investments of 11.9 million dollars into a high-quality certification laboratory, which will be completed by the end of 2012.

Once the investments are completed, GSK Romania is looking to increase its exports from 60% to 75% of its total output. Moreover, the number of tablets manufactured in Braşov is set to increase this year from 42 million to 46 million units, the aforementioned source said. In 2010, the plant produced a volume of 42.3 million units, a 57% increase over 2009.

According to Prigent, since entering the Romanian market in 1998, GSK invested 120 million dollars on the local market, with most of that amount going to the plant of Braşov (USD 100 million).

Up until three years ago, the plant of Braşov only manufactured local brands of drugs, those of Europharm which were intended exclusively for the local market. Right now, over 60% of the output gets exported to 50 countries, with the most important being Italy and France, as well as Japan, and the company is expecting to sell the drugs manufactured in Romania in 80 countries starting next year. "For GSK, the plant of Braşov represents the perfect combination between the quality of people which work here and competitive costs. In the future we wish to continue transferring the production of global brands to the plant of Braşov, but for the moment we find it rather hard to focus on other projects, because most countries are concerned over the price of drugs, and in Romania they are manufactured at a low price. The authorities' support will be required or a solution will need to be found because the current legislation in Romania concerning pricing does not allow companies to manufacture drugs in Romania and then export them at a competitive price", the quoted source said.

• 16 brands are being manufactured in Braşov

The transfer of the Seroxat project - which involved a compression line, a new packaging line and annexes to the packaging line, as well as the construction of a new warehouse - was completed at the end of last year. 40% of the company's global output of Seroxat is manufactured here, US and Canadian markets excluded. The project to transfer the manufacturing of Retrovir capsules, with the same components of encapsulation, packaging and storage, was recently completed, whereas exports began in the month of February this year.

In total, 16 brands of vitamins and minerals are being produced in Braşov, as well as analgesics, antipyretics and anti-inflammatory drugs, gastrointestinal drugs, drugs for the respiratory system and for the central nervous system.

The Romanian division of the GSK group involves both the part of drugs distribution (through GSK plant of Braşov), as well as a company for the distribution of drugs (Europharm Distribution).

In Romania, GSK sells a portfolio of 84 products, in over 150 forms of presentation, in 13 of the most important therapeutic areas - pandemics and oncology, HIV/AIDS, respiratory diseases, thrombosis, cardiology, dermatology, central nervous system, hematology, infectious diseases, urology and muscular and skeletal diseases (osteoporosis). The company also owns the most complex portfolio of pediatric vaccines, with over 10 brands of vaccines which prevent serious diseases, which could have dramatic consequences on the state of people's health, such as poliomyelitis, hepatitis, pneumonia, meningitis and cervical cancer.