BELGRADE (Serbia), May 8 (SeeNews) – German generic drugs producer Stada said on Thursday its sales in Serbia rose 8.0% on the year to 21.6 million euro ($30.1 million) in the first three months of 2014, mainly due to increasing demand.
Generic drugs generated 18 million euro in sales through March, up 5.0% on the year, and accounted for 83% of the company's sales in Serbia, compared to 85% in the same period last year, Stada, which owns Serbian drug maker Hemofarm, said in a statement on its website.
The development on the generic segment in Serbia is increasingly characterized by national tender processes to supply hospitals and government pharmacies, the German group said.
Sales of branded products in Serbia climbed 18% to 3.6 million euro over the review period, accounting for 17% of the company's sales in the Balkan country.
In the first quarter of 2014, the insolvency administrator of Velefarm Holding and Velefarm VFB took legal action in Belgrade’s commercial court against Hemofarm AD and Velefarm Prolek, a company of the Velefarm group. In the lawsuit, the insolvency administrator demands that certain agreements and statements from the years 2010 and 2011 reached between Hemofarm and companies of the Serbian wholesale group Velefarm with regard to the insolvent assets of Velefarm Holding and Velefarm VFB be declared invalid and demands repayments to the insolvent assets.
In the statement of claim, these amounts are quantified with approximately 54.2 million euro, in local currency. However, it has to be taken into consideration that Hemofarm as creditor of the insolvent assets would retrieve a quota of the insolvent assets in a significant amount. Hemofarm and Stada believe that the lawsuit is unfounded.
The German company said it "still assumes that its own operating business in Serbia is fundamentally stable and that it offers further growth opportunities."
Stada completed the acquisition of Hemofarm, located in Vrsac, in northeast Serbia, in 2006.
($=0.7176 euro)