By Vincent Mariel P. Galang, Reporter
GERMAN pharmaceutical company Stada Pharmaceuticals, Inc. officially launched in the Philippines, offering high quality generic and branded medicine.
Although the company has been selling its products in Philippines for years through a third-party Croma Medic, Inc., Stada saw the need to establish its own office here to focus on promoting its products.
“Now, with us being Stada Philippines, what we really focus on is selling our own product and that is really a shift of strategy from what we did in the past,” Gary Clark, Stada managing director for Asia Pacific, Australia, and China, told BusinessWorld after the media launch at Fairmont Hotel in Makati City on Feb. 27.
Stada branded products include Mar Plus, while its generic products include Ciprofloxacin an anti-infective for urinary tract infection (UTI), Acyclovir an anti-viral medicine, and Metoprolol for hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
“It’s difficult in the Philippines for Filipino people because they have to pay (for medicine) out of their own pocket… that makes it difficult. I think the UHC, the Universal Healthcare Program that the government is introducing, that will make a big difference, but even then that’s for the cost of the government, so they will still be looking for medicines and healthcare that can be provided at a lower cost,” Mr. Clark said.
He said Stada is able to reduce the cost of its medicine because of its high production volume.
“We have higher volumes we can keep our costs down, and our manufacturing is very strong but we keep our manufacturing costs down as well,” Mr. Clark said.
Sharmaine Abarientos, commercial director for Stada Philippines, said the company will focus on launching products for men’s health and pediatrics this year.
“We have products for prostate cancer…mga[those] anti-viral and anti-infectives for UTI… And nasal spray for allergic rhinitis… We will launch clinically proven food supplement that lowers down cholesterol,” she told BusinessWorld.
Ms. Abarientos said the company is aiming to have its products available nationwide by the end of 2019.
“I think one of our major goal or purpose is better health for the Filipinos, and the only way you can do this is make the patient afford and buy the product, so with our generic lines, I think this will address that major concern… And we would like to improve compliance by giving… options to our patients. Quality medications that does not put burden on cost, so we aim to price it that will be affordable to majority of the Filipinos,” she said.
Stada Arzneimittel AG is a publicly listed company with headquarters in Bad Vilbel, Germany. Its business consists of generics, non-prescription over-the-counter products and specialty pharmaceuticals. Stada is represented in about 30 countries.
