The French leader in generic drugs is launching in Côte d’Ivoire as part of its African strategy. A strategy that makes Abidjan the launching pad for its ambition on the continent where the laboratory targets the West and Central African regions.
A subsidiary of Pharmaceutical Group Servier, Biogaran, which now accounts for nearly 30% of the generic market in France, intends to capitalize on the reputation of its products in order to conquer highly competitive African markets where major Western, Asian and local laboratories are battling.
“We offer medicines that comply with European standards, at affordable and affordable prices and that are bio-equivalent to the original medicines, thus guaranteeing the same efficiency,” said Emmanuel Le Doeuff, General Manager and Director of International Affairs of Biogaran January 24 in Abidjan.
He particularly insisted on the “accessibility” of the proposed products which are “on average 50% cheaper than the original products” and which will contribute to an effective response to the problem of counterfeit medicines and street drugs, plagues which causes 100,000 deaths each year in Africa according to WHO.
In Côte d’Ivoire, Biogaran will initially engage in medical and pharmaceutical promotion activities for its generic medicines, which, thanks to the permanent sale licenses issued by the health authorities, will be continuously available in pharmacies. It will eventually follow the opening of an office by 2020 according to market reaction.
The laboratory’s offer will initially focus on pathologies such as diabetes, high blood pressure, bacterial infections or erectile dysfunction, “diseases increasingly present in sub-Saharan Africa”. And by 2020, the laboratory intends to propose for the first time a product against malaria, the time to obtain the necessary authorizations.
After Côte d’Ivoire, Biogaran targets 14 francophone countries in West and Central Africa, Congo, Gabon, Senegal and Mali to be the next markets for implementation by the end of the year. year.
With a range of more than 853 generics references, Biogaran – which made its first operation in Africa in 2017 with the purchase of generic Swipha laboratory in Nigeria – marketed in 2018 more than 290 million boxes of drugs for a total of gross business of more than one billion euros.
