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Pharma Poland News

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Issue No. 51 (449) – Thursday, 19 December 2013Weekly News Briefing

A prime source of market intelligence for pharma professionals www.pharmapoland.com

PMR is a market research and consulting company active within over 25 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Since 1995 we have assisted more than 500 global corporations and many other regional companies to continuously increase their market share, successfully enter new territories and optimise costs. We specialise in construction, retail, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, IT and telecommunications. However, our experience extends to many other industries. Our 100 in-house professionals fluently speak together more than 15 languages. In addition to our tailored research and business consulting projects we also publish annually almost 100 ready sector reports and information services.

Pharma Poland News

Market news� page�2

Higher pharmacy sales in 1-11 DecemberPharmacy sales down by 0.6% in NovemberFPZ secures enough signatures for bill amending Reimbursement Act GIF determined to exercise new powers over wholesalers to prevent market shortages

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Company news� page�3

Manufacturers

Stem Cells Spin gets new Polish patent for key inventionMabion records no revenues in Q3Egis reports sales of €55.2m in Poland in the 2012/2013 fiscal year

Distributors

Neuca to buy first clinics in Q1 2014?Polfa raises PLN 6m for foreign launches, expansion of distribution networks Hebe enters Koszalin, opens new Warsaw storeArnika enters Elk market


Central Europe news� page�5

Hungarian pharmaceutical market up by 1% in October 2012-September 2013Czech new governing coalition to scrap prescription, doctor fees, lower VAT on drugsSopharma to receive BGN 3m grant for innovation in ampoule productionGSK to select buyer for plant in Romania


Medical devices� page�6

Medicalgorithmics has PLN 40m for acquisitions

R&D/medical news� page�6

AHP to build PLN 50m hospital for commercial patients, consider M&A dealsAllenort to slip into the red in 2013 amid lower NFZ fundingCarint expanding Ostrowiec centre in PLN 10m projectMedicover adjusts Warsaw network after Dantex Med acquisition


Pharma Poland News – Issue No. 51 (449)Thursday, 19 December 2013

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Higher pharmacy sales in 1-11 December

In the first 11 days of December the Polish pharmacy market showed increases in al-most every area, both on a yearly and month-ly basis, according to preliminary figures from PharmaExpert. The only exception was the year-on-year change in sales of OTC products.

In comparison with 1-11 December 2012, pharmacy sales of Rx medicines went up by 6.4% (at retail prices), sales of OTC products were down by 3.3% y-o-y, sales of dietary supplements increased by 5.1% y-o-y while sales of cosmetics were up by 7.3% y-o-y.

In comparison with 1-11 November 2013, pharmacy sales of Rx medicines jumped by 18.7%, OTC products by 10.5%, sales of di-etary supplements were up by 6.5% and cos-metics by 12.6%.

The latter set of figures was helped by fewer non-working days.

Pharmacy sales down by 0.6% in November

In November 2013 pharmacy sales in Poland amounted to just under PLN 2.32bn (€555m), which represents a decrease of 0.6% com-pared with the same period of 2012, accord-ing to data from PharmaExpert. This came after a 3.2% increase in October.

The biggest drop occurred in the case of fully-paid prescription medicines, whose sales were down by 3.4% y-o-y to PLN 509m (€122m). Sales of reimbursed medicines edged down by 0.2% y-o-y to PLN 858m

(€205m). The only category to post an in-crease in comparison with November 2012 were OTC products, whose sales, at PLN 933m (€223m), were 0.4% higher than a year ago.

Average pharmacy turnover amounted to PLN 169,500 (40,500) in November and was 0.88% lower y-o-y.

The average pharmacy price was margin-ally higher than last year and amounted to PLN 16.53 (€3.95).

The average pharmacy margin increased to 27.5% from 26.78% in November 2012.

In comparison with October 2013, phar-macy sales decreased by 9%, with all the main categories showing a decline in relation to one month earlier.

FPZ secures enough signatures for bill amending Reimbursement Act Federacja Porozumienie Zielonogorskie (FPZ), the federation of doctors-practice owners, has managed to collect the 100,000 signatures required to put its proposed amendment to the Reimbursement Act to a vote in the Sejm, Puls Farmacji reported. The deadline for the submission of signatures was 10 December.

The objective of the bill is to improve pa-tients’ access to effective therapy while reduc-ing the bureaucratic burden on doctors.

Under the proposal, whether a given med-icine is reimbursed or not is to depend ex-clusively on the clinical condition and on medical knowledge about this condition, rather than on Health Ministry announce-

ments, and doctors would no longer be involved in calculating the level of reim-bursement, which would be reduced to the simple technicality of comparing the drug’s name and the disease code. Furthermore, the proposal introduces a cap on a patient’s ex-penditures on reimbursed medicines, equal to three times the minimum wage, with any excess expenditures to be covered by the National Health Fund (NFZ). And it seeks to address the problem of losses generated by pharmacies due to frequent changes in the prices of reimbursed medications. Under ex-isting law, retailers often find themselves hav-ing to sell medicines at below the wholesale price, if the official selling price gets reduced. Therefore, the FPZ would like pharmacies to be allowed to return such medicines to wholesalers at the original price. According to the federation, this would enable retailers to keep appropriate inventory levels without risking losses, thus improving the availability of reimbursed medicines for the patient.

GIF determined to exercise new powers over wholesalers to prevent market shortagesThe Main Pharmaceutical Inspectorate (GIF) will respond to any apparent instances of pharmaceutical wholesalers failing to en-sure adequate and continuous supply of re-imbursed medicinal products to the market, by launching administrative proceedings with a view to revoking the licenses of the offending companies, Zofia Ulz, the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspector, said in a statement on 12 December.

Ms Ulz reminded the sector that on 25 November, an amendment to the Pharmaceutical Law came into effect that places an obligation on wholesalers to ensure adequate and continuous supply of medicinal products to the market (Article 36z),and that gives the GIF the power to revoke the license of any wholesaling company that ignores this requirement with respect to reimbursed me-dicinal products (Article 81).

NRA calls for protection of hospital pharmacies

The Polish Pharmaceutical Council (NRA) wants the National Health Fund (NFZ) to give a preference in the contracting process to those hospital providers who maintain in-house pharmacies, thus ensuring the de-sired quality of pharmacotherapy and drug

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Thursday, 19 December 2013Pharma Poland News – Issue No. 51 (449)

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management, including personalised chem-otherapy or nutritherapy, RynekAptek.pl re-ported. NRA representatives outlined their proposals during a recent meeting with NFZ vice president for medical affairs Marcin Pakulski. They include the introduction of minimum requirements for the employ-ment of trained pharmacists at hospitals, for example.

According to the NRA, in recent years there has been a growing, and worrying, trend in the Polish healthcare sector towards closing

hospital pharmacies and replacing them with hospital pharmacy units, which have a more limited scope of responsibility and are not al-lowed to make any compound medicines, for example.

NFZ chief to be replaced?

Marcin Pakulski, currently National Health Fund (NFZ) vice president for medical af-fairs, is to replace Agnieszka Pachciarz at the

helm of the NFZ, RMF FM radio reported on 18 December citing unofficial sources.

According to the station, health minister Bartosz Arlukowicz on 17 December submit-ted a formal request for the Prime Minister to dismiss Ms Pachciarz from her post.

Mr Arlukowicz and Ms Pachciarz, who previously served as his deputy at the min-istry, reportedly have differences of opinion about several financial and legal problems re-lated to the functioning of the NFZ.

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Manufacturers

Stem Cells Spin gets new Polish patent for key invention

Stem Cells Spin (SCS), the start-up biotech firm listed on NewConnect, on 10 December announced that it had received a patent form the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland (UPRP) for its invention, “deer antler stem cell homogenate, its derivation and applica-tion methods”. It is a fifth domestic patent, and 12th overall, received by the company in relation to MIC-1, its innovative ingredi-ent that captures the regenerative potential of stem cells found in deer antlers, which is used by SCS to develop dermocosmetics and medicinal products. The patents cover the stem cell lines, their derivation and culture methods, and applications of the stem cell lines and the homogenate. The foreign pat-ents are from authorities in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand (two), South Korea, and China.

In October SCS was awarded a PLN 57m (€13.6m) research grant from the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR)’s Demonstrator+ programme in support of its project to develop prototype medicinal products based on raw materials obtained from deer antler stem cells, whose total value is estimated by the company at PLN 64.9m (€15.5m).

Mabion records no revenues in Q3

Mabion, the start-up biotech firm listed on NewConnect, generated no sales revenues in the third quarter of 2013, compared with PLN 0.33m (€0.08m) in the same period last year, and for January-September 2013 it re-ported revenues down by almost 85% y-o-y to just over PLN 0.1m (€0.024m), its Q3 re-port shows.

The company, which is engaged in an am-bitious and costly R&D programme, made a third-quarter loss of PLN 0.85m (€0.2m), al-

most triple the figure last year. In Q1-Q3 2013 it incurred a loss of PLN 2.4m (€0.6m), up by 128.9% y-o-y.

The most important events for Mabion during Q3 were the signing of an agree-ment with ONKO of Turkey, a pharmaceu-tical firm in that country with a focus on oncological medicines, about the market-ing of MabionCD20, a biosimilar for treat-ing blood cancer, leukemia and lymphomas that is the Polish firm’s most advanced drug candidate, in Turkey, and the issuance by the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent group of experts monitoring patient safety and treatment efficacy data for ongoing clinical trials, of a positive assessment of a vital multi-site trial of MabionCD20. The company has since also secured approval from the Health Ministry of the Ukraine for the local part of this study. And late October Morocco’s Sothema Laboratories, Mabion’s distribu-tion partner in North Afrtica, submitted to the Ministry of Health of Morocco a pre-liminary version of the registration dossier of MabionCD20.

Egis reports sales of €55.2m in Poland in the 2012/2013 fiscal yearEgis, a Hungarian pharmaceutical manu-facturer, reported consolidated sales worth €55.2m in Poland in the 2012/2013 fiscal year (i.e., from 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2013), which represents a 3% increase in euro terms in comparison to the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

In the fourth quarter alone (from 1 July 2013 to 30 September 2013), the Group achieved consolidated sales revenues of PLN 59.8m or €14.1m in Poland, down by 5% in euro terms (3% in zloty terms) on a yearly basis.

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In the Eastern European countries, un-der which Polish market results are classi-fied, Egis revenues came to €124.9m in the 2012/2013 fiscal year, up by 4% year on year. In Q4 the sales revenues amounted to €32.9m in the region.

Overall, the consolidated sales revenues of the Egis Group on all of its markets came to HUF 135.72bn (€455.5m) in the 2012/2013 fiscal year, up 2% in euro terms in compari-son to the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

The company’s consolidated net profit came to HUF 20.4bn (€68.4m), a 10% year-on-year increase.

Distributors

Neuca to buy first clinics in Q1 2014?

Neuca could make its first acquisitions of healthcare providers already in the first quar-ter of 2014, while the pharmaceutical distrib-utor is also contemplating opening its own clinics from the ground up, Kazimierz Herba, chairman of its supervisory board and main shareholder with 46% of shares, revealed in an interview with Parkiet.

Neuca plans to build a “small network of clinics” over the next few years and is pre-pared to spend approximately PLN 30m (€7.2m) on the project during this period, Mr Herba confirmed.

Neuca is eyeing clinics that are already profitable. Depending on the initial results of the clinics and on conditions in the health-care sector, Neuca will decide on how to pro-ceed with the healthcare project, Mr Herba said.

Polfa raises PLN 6m for foreign launches, expansion of distribution networks Polfa, the NewConnect-listed pharmaceuti-cal and medical devices distributor formed from the merger of Ciech Polfa and BM Medical, on 17 December announced that it had raised PLN 6m (€1.4m) from the issue of new three-year, C series bonds initiated last month.

This is well below the maximum amount that the company had hoped to raise from the issue, i.e. PLN 10m (€2.4m), and be-low the original minimum amount set for the bond issue to proceed, which had been PLN 8m (€1.9m), but above the revised mini-mum level of PLN 5m (€1.2m).

Polfa aims to use the proceeds to pay for the introduction of innovative medical de-vices and oncological medicines from the company’s portfolio on all national markets where it operates, as well as for further devel-opment of its sales networks in Poland and other markets.

Hebe enters Koszalin, opens new Warsaw store

Hebe, the health and beauty chain owned by Jeronimo Martins, has opened two new drugstores in recent days, increasing its net-work to 64 locations nationwide, and 101 if pharmacies are included.

One of the new stores is located in Koszalin, the second-biggest city in the voivodship of Zachodniopomorskie, with a population of 109,000. Launched on 14 December, it is Hebe’s first drugstore in that market.

The other one is in Warsaw’s Zelazna street in the central part of the capital city. Inaugurated on 13 December, it brings the number of Hebe stores on the Warsaw mar-ket to 10.

At a meeting with investors in Lisbon in late November Jeronimo Martins said that it planned to add 200 locations to the Hebe network in Poland by 2016. The Portuguese retail group also said that it was very pleased with the sales performance of the chain so far and that it expected Hebe to generate revenues of €60m in the whole of this year.

Arnika enters Elk market

Apteki Arnika, the mid-sized pharma-cy chain based in Olsztyn, has expanded its presence in its native Warminsko-Mazurskie voivodship by opening a franchise pharmacy in Elk, a district town of about 60,000 inhab-itants in the eastern part of the province, on 13 December.

The store, located at Galeria Tu I Teraz, a 5,000 m² gross leasable area retail park in the central part of the town, is Arnika’s first location in Elk.

It is also the company’s first store opening since August, when Arnika inaugurated its 11th store in Olsztyn.

Expert commentary to the news story: "Arnika enters Elk market" The number of pharmacies that belong to chains, as well as the number of chains themselves has been growing steadily in Poland for the last few years. Between Q4 2012 and Q3 2013, around 30 new pharmacy chains consisting of more than five outlets appeared on the Polish pharmaceutical market, ac-cording to IMS Health data. Pharmacy chain outlets are more commonly be-

ing opened in smaller cities, where there is a lower degree of market saturation. The most substantial numbers of new pharmacies were opened by chains consisting of 5-14 outlets. According to PMR forecasts, pharmacy chains will gain a share of more than 50% in the Polish pharmaceutical market within the next several years due to the dynamic growth of their operations. Moreover, PMR expects both the development of new pharmacy chains and the growth in the number of existing pharmacies.

Agnieszka�Skonieczna,�Senior�Pharmaceutical�Analyst,�PMR



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In July Arnika’s owner Waldemar Ciunel said in an interview with Franchising.pl that the introduction of fixed margins on reim-bursed medicines and the consequent ero-sion of pharmacy margins led to a rise in the number of independent drug retailers ap-proaching Arnika about possibilities to join its franchise system.

At present Arnika has nearly 20 company-owned pharmacies and about 30 franchise outlets. Some 40% are located in Warminsko-Mazurskie (mainly in Olsztyn), but the com-pany is present in eight out of the country’s 16 voivodships.

Apteka Magiczna enters Czestochowa market

Apteka Magiczna, the mid-sized phar-macy chain based in Lodz, has expand-ed its footprint in the Slaskie voivodship by opening a pharmacy in Czestochowa, the city of over 230,000 inhabitants in the province’s northern part, earlier this month.

It is Magiczna’s first location in that market. It is also its second store opening in a matter of weeks, after it added its 11th pharmacy in its native Lodz.

Apteka Magiczna has more than 30 phar-macies in 14 markets in five voivodships. Apart from Lodz, it has a strong presence in Slaskie (12 including a new opening) as well as in Wroclaw (4) or Poznan (3).

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Hungarian pharmaceutical market up by 1% in October 2012-September 2013The value of the Hungarian pharmaceu-tical market amounted to HUF 588.7bn (€1.95bn) at wholesale prices in October 2012-September 2013, up by 1% in compar-ison with the corresponding period of the previous year, according to IMS Health data quoted by Egis.

In the third quarter of 2013 alone (July-September 2013), the market increased by 6% year-on-year in value terms.

In October 2011-September 2012 the val-ue of the market amounted to HUF 583.0bn (€1.94bn).

Czech new governing coalition to scrap prescription, doctor fees, lower VAT on drugsThe Czech social-democratic party CSSD, ANO and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) agreed on a coalition agreement, which will bring among other things, the abolish-ment of the CZK 30 (€1.09) regulatory fees that patients pay for a medical prescrip-tion or visiting a doctor, Mlada fronta Dnes reported.

The CZK 90 (€3.38) fee for a visit to an emergency room will be preserved, while the re-introduction of hospital stay fees is to be discussed, Mlada fronta Dnes said.

Prague Monitor reported, however, that the new Czech parliament adopted in first reading a bill introducing the hospital stay fee in the amount of CZK 60 (€2.19) per day,

after the current CZK 100 (€3.64) fee will be abolished as of January 2014, in line with the recent ruling of the Czech Constitutional Court.

The new government that is being formed by the coalition will also introduce a re-duced VAT rate that will apply to a number of products, including medicines. The tax changes will not be introduced sooner than in 2015, news portal E15 noted, adding that the size of the reduced VAT rate has not yet been determined. Currently, there are two VAT rates in the country: 21%, which ap-plies to medical equipment, and 15%, which applies to drugs.

Sopharma to receive BGN 3m grant for innovation in ampoule productionSopharma, a prominent Bulgarian drug manufacturer, will receive up to BGN 3m (€1.5m) in European Union funding for a project which involves the implementa-tion of innovative technology in the produc-tion of ampoules. The next step is the signing of a contract for grant funding by the end of 2013.

According to the company, the overall cost of the project will be BGN 6.1m (€3.1m), ex-cluding VAT.

As part of the project, the company will acquire and commission a line for the auto-matic grading of ampoules which will consist of a visual inspection machine and a mod-ule for 100% quality control, along with a line for interior and exterior wash, dry sterilisa-tion (depyrogenation), and the filling and

soldering of ampoules by means of nitrogen gassing.

Sopharma will receive the EU funds in accordance with the Development of the Competitiveness of the Bulgarian Economy Operational Programme.

The total duration of the project will be 18 months.

GSK to select buyer for plant in Romania

The Romanian subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has started the process of selecting a buyer for the Europharm plant in Brasov. The first stage of the search was completed in early November and now, during the sec-ond, the company “is working with interest-ed companies better to understand specific plans for the plant and to carry out a thor-ough assessment, including plant visits”. GSK expects to complete the second stage by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Although there is “considerable interest” in the plant, the company says that if it fails to find a suit-able buyer, it will close the facility in 2015.

In June this year, GSK announced that it had decided to remove the Europharm plant from its global manufacturing network be-cause of production overcapacity, claiming that the decision was prompted by a wave of expired patents which led to an excess of production of pills. Since then, the company has been searching for potential buyers with which it could sign a transitory production agreement. This agreement would allow GSK to continue the manufacturing process un-til it had moved all of its production to oth-er plants in its network. The plant produces a wide range of pharmaceuticals, from HIV/AIDS treatments to medicines for respiratory diseases, depression and colds and flu.

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At present, the Europharm factory has 243 employees. In the past it exported more than 60% of its produce to 80 countries. Last year, it was running at less than half of its annual capacity of 90 million packets.

Penta interested in constructing/operating new hospital for BratislavaPenta Investments would like to partici-pate in the project aimed at setting up a new

hospital in Bratislava as its developer and/or operator of the facility, news agency SITA reported.

As PMR wrote in June, the Slovak Ministry of Health plans to build a new hospital with 775 beds and construction costs amounting to about €250m. This could be a first med-ical facility that would emerge in the coun-try via a public-private partnership project, the news agency noted. The ministry esti-mates that construction works could begin in 2015, and would take around 18 months to complete.

Penta also believes that a new hospital should be built in central Slovakia, to re-place Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, the buildings of which are in a poor techni-cal state.

Penta was interested in building a new hos-pital between Banska Bystrica and the city of Zvolen and even prepared architectural stud-ies, but abandoned this project, saying that the government has no interest in it, with its eyes only set on new hospital for Bratislava.

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Medicalgorithmics has PLN 40m for acquisitions

Madicalgorithmics, the NewConnect-list-ed maker of innovative e-health devices and solutions, has a cash pile of about PLN 40m (€9.6m) which it wants to use to acquire companies that provide cardiology-related services based on its technologies, particu-larly patient monitoring and clinical studies of new medicines, founder and CEO Marek

Dziubinski told Parkiet. The company is cur-rently in talks with several potential targets, he added.

M&A deals might also arise from dis-tribution partnerships in new markets, Mr Dziubinski indicated. Medicalgorithmics, which currently derives about 90% of its revenues in the United States, has identi-fied Canada, Brazil and several countries in Europe as the next places to expand, and is looking for partners there. In late November

it entered into a strategic alliance agreement with MDiCloud, a British maker of remote diagnostic and patient monitoring systems for proprietary telehealth services and for third party healthcare providers. Under it, MDiCloud will distribute PocketECG, the Polish firm’s flagship mobile cardiac monitor-ing system, on the markets of Great Britain and Ireland, but the agreement also gives Medicalgorithmics preemptive rights to ac-quire the UK firm, if the collaboration proves successful. According to Mr Dziubinski, the company will seek to include similar clauses in distribution agreements concluded in oth-er countries as well.

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Medical devices

AHP to build PLN 50m hospital for commercial patients, consider M&A dealsAmerican Heart of Poland (AHP) has de-cided to invest PLN 40-50m (€9.6-12m) in the construction of a cardiovascular hos-pital focused exclusively on treating com-mercial patients, Puls Biznesu reported on 12 December.

The company has yet to decide on a loca-tion for the new hospital, but expects the fa-cility to be completed by the end of next year, Prof. Pawel Buszman, AHP’s founder and shareholder, told the paper. In selecting the site, AHP will prioritise two criteria, namely good transport links and access to a pool of experienced doctors, he added.

Prof. Buszman said there were sufficient numbers of patients in Poland prepared to pay for cardiac procedures, especially those

not covered by the National Health Fund (NFZ).

AHP’s latest move has to do with the Fund reducing its expenditures on cardiac care, ac-cording to Puls Biznesu.

Meanwhile, the provider is in the middle of building a cardiac care centre in Wodzislaw Slaski at a cost of approximately PLN 20m (€4.8m), which is also expected to be com-pleted by the end of 2014. According to Prof. Buszman, such a facility is sorely need-ed in the Slaskie region with its high levels of air pollution, which contributes to cardiovas-cular illness.

However, AHP will be very cautious about building more centres, as there is room for not more than 2-3 new facilities, Prof. Buszman said. Therefore the company will consider using the M&A route as an alternative to or-ganic growth, and is also eyeing foreign ex-pansion, he revealed.

Allenort to slip into the red in 2013 amid lower NFZ funding

Allenort is facing a loss for its fiscal 2013 due to a shift in the policies of the National Health Fund (NFZ) that threatens to undermine the success of the country’s cardiac care sector, CEO and co-owner Grzegorz Goryszewski said in an interview with Puls Biznesu.

According to Mr Goryszewski, the Fund’s decision to lower its rates for cardiac proce-dures, and the reluctance and slowness with which it pays for over-contract procedures, even life-saving ones, means the group, which operates seven cardiac centres, will be una-ble to turn a profit this year. The reduction in NFZ rates alone has squeezed profit margins in the cardiology sector to just 5-7% at the moment from about 20% one and a half years ago, he calculates. Furthermore, the NFZ has said that it will pay for maximally 30-40% of the total value of over-contract procedures performed by Allenort this year.

The provider has disputes with the Fund over unpaid bills dating back up to 2010,

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some of which are now in the courts, and Allenort is hopeful it can still recover the funds, Mr Goryszewski noted.

According to Allenort Executive Vice President and co-founder Marek Szufladowicz, the NFZ’s previous policy to-wards the sector has contributed to the sig-nificant improvement in the survival rates of patients after acute myocardial infarction in Poland, which are now 96.5% compared with 85% in the 1990’s, but its new approach risks undoing the advances.

Carint expanding Ostrowiec centre in PLN 10m project

GVM Carint, the operator of cardiac clinics in southern Poland, on 18 December initiat-ed the construction of a new 2,000 m² build-ing for its Centre of Invasive Cardiology, Electrotherapy and Angiology in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, a district town of about 70,000 inhabitants in the Swietokrzyskie voivodship.

The value of the project is PLN 10m (€2.4m) and its first phase is expected to be completed in just over a year.

The Ostrowiec centre operates at a lo-cal public hospital. It performs about 1,200 life-saving procedures a year. Carint has reached agreement with local authorities to expand its scope of services to include arterial procedures as well as low-invasive treatment of heart arrhythmias and heart failure using state-of-the-art procedures. Also, the unit is to be merged with the hos-pital’s cardiology ward and to be allowed to bid directly for National Health Fund (NFZ) funding.

Established in 2007 by Polish medical pro-vider Carint and Gruppo Villa Maria of Italy, GMV Carint has a network of 14 clinics, mainly in Malopolskie and Podkarpackie.

Medicover adjusts Warsaw network after Dantex Med acquisition Medicover patients from the Warsaw area now have four new clinics to choose from, after the incorporation into the network of Dantex Med facilities effective from 1 December 2013, the healthcare group announced.

Medicover bought 100% of shares in Dantex Med in September. The company has four medical centres in Wola and Mokotow districts.

Medicover also said that as a consequence of the integration of Dantex Med, it has ceased its collaboration with four affiliated clinics in the Warsaw market, including two ATTIS clinics, Medicenter, and one Multi Med clinic.

The Dantex Med takeover is the lat-est in a series of acquisitions completed by Medicover in recent years, which included Centrum Medyczne Damiana, InviMed in-fertility treatment provider, or Sport Medica. The group has about 30 clinics in major cities.

Signal Iduna shuts Warsaw clinic

Signal Iduna, a health insurer, has decided to close down its medical centre in Warsaw ef-fective from 15 December, it emerged.

The company opened the clinic in November 2010, as part of plans to develop a nationwide network of several dozen medi-cal centres across the country, which have not materialised. It served both holders of Signal Iduna policies and walk-in patients.

According to the company, the decision to close down the clinic has to do with the planned demolition of the Ilmet office build-ing next year. Its patient will be transferred to Signal Iduna’s partner clinics, of which there are 125 in Warsaw and more than 700 nationwide.

In July Puls Biznesu reported that Signal Iduna was considering divesting the clinic as it grappled with a slump in premium rev-enues on the Polish market, and that Polmed was the most likely buyer, with Enel-Med and LUX MED Group having turned down the offer. A source close to the process told the paper that Signal Iduna was also contem-plating a reverse option whereby it would buy into Polmed to create a health manage-ment group similar to the one Bupa is build-ing in Poland after its acquisition of LUX MED Group.

Signal Iduna to stay in Poland but clinic programme suspended pending restructuring

Signal Iduna, the German insurer with a fo-cus on health and tourist insurance, denies speculation that it is about to withdraw from Poland due to poor financial performance of its Polish business, and is moving ahead with a restructuring programme designed to re-

store the operation to a sound financial foot-ing, Puls Biznesu reported.

Juergen Reimann, the Executive Vice President of Signal Iduna Polska, who is ex-pected to become its new CEO in 2014 af-ter obtaining clearance from the Financial Supervisory Commission (KNF), told the paper that the group was not prone to giv-ing up easily and that it was still interested in the Polish market. The parent company has recently injected PLN 9m (€2.2m) of fresh capital into Signal Iduna Polska as part of a turnaround plan that also involves pain-ful job cuts, with 30% of its employees hav-ing been laid off in the past few months. According to Mr Reimann, the business had a bloated structure that was ill-suited to its operations. It also had bold plans to develop a network of clinics in Poland, but these had to be put on hold pending the completion of the restructuring process, he added.

Signal Iduna Polska expects to show a sig-nificantly small loss for 2013, and to report a profit in 2014 for the first time since its en-try to the Polish market 13 years ago.

The company could return to expansion mode in 2015, Mr Reimann indicated. But he also expressed scepticism that work on the much-awaited law on voluntary health insurance would indeed gather speed as de-clared recently by health minister Bartosz Arlukowicz.

See the news item "Signal Iduna shuts Warsaw clinic".

Amethyst opens first radiotherapy facility in Poland

Radiology Therapeutic Center Poland (RTCP), a unit of pan-European radiother-apy provider Amethyst Radiotherapy, on 11 December inaugurated the group’s first fa-cility in Poland.

The centre is located at the L. Rydygier Specialty Hospital in Krakow. Built at a cost of PLN 84m (€20.1m), it offers a comprehensive range of oncology treatment, from diagnosis through oncological surgery to chemothera-py and radiotherapy. First patients were due to be admitted on 16 December.

The L. Rydygiera hospital had decided to build a radiotherapy centre back in 2009, but it was not until sometime later that it elect-ed to seek a private partner for the project. A tender procedure was subsequently held, which was won by RTCP in November 2012.

In September RTCP won a contract to build and operate a radiotherapy centre at



�

Wojewodzki Szpital Zespolony, a voivodship hospital in Plock (Mazowieckie), at an esti-mated cost of over PLN 60m (€14.3m). It also has a similar agreement with a public hospi-tal in Przemysl (Podkarpackie).

Also in September RTCP said it was in talks with a further two hospitals about ra-diotherapy centres and expected to sign one more contract before the end of the year,.

According to earlier information, the com-pany plans to build a network of four to five centres in Poland over the next five years at a combined cost of approximately PLN 500m (€119.5m).

InterHealth Canada to start Zywiec hospital project in spring 2014InterHealth Canada has finally secured the external financing needed to commence the project to build and operate a new hospital for Zywiec district (Slaskie vovodship) under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, Medicalnet.pl reported on 16 December.

The investment is now expected to get un-derway in the spring of 2014, according to the website.

The value of the Zywiec project – the first of this type in Poland’s healthcare sector – was initially estimated at PLN 250m (€60m).

Zywiec's existing hospital serves an area with a population of 150,000 inhabitants and performs 14,000 hospitalisations a year. Its current contract with the National Health Fund (NFZ) is worth PLN 44.4m (€10.6m). Faced with the requirement to upgrade it to new infrastructure standards, the local gov-ernment has decided that it will build a new hospital building in partnership with a pri-vate investor.

InterHealth Canada will assume the hospi-tal’s contract with the National Health Fund (NFZ) and will become its operator for a pe-riod of 30 years.

PCZ seals takeover of hospital in Dolnoslaskie

PCZ, the listed healthcare group, on 17 December entered into an agreement to buy 100% of shares in Powiatowe Centrum Medyczne w Gorze Sp. z o.o. (PCMG), a lo-cal government-owned company that oper-ates the district hospital in Gora, a town of about 13,000 inhabitants and seat of a dis-trict with a population of around 40,000 in

the Dolnoslaskie voivodship. The value of the transaction was PLN 5m (€1.2m).

Under the agreement, PCZ has undertak-en to continue the operations of the hospital’s four main wards, i.e. internal medicine, gen-eral surgery, gynaecology and obstetrics, and paediatrics, for at least 10 years and to invest PLN 5m (€1.2m) over the next four years to modernise the hospital’s facilities and equip-ment so as to ensure compliance with the requirements of the National Health Fund (NFZ) or whatever entity replaces it during this period.

In 2012 the Gora hospital had revenues of approximately PLN 11m (€2.6m).

In a statement to the stock exchange, PCZ says that the takeover of PCMG is in line with its strategy to build a comprehensive, verti-cally integrated healthcare group active in southwestern Poland, through a combination of organic growth and mergers and acquisi-tions. According to the group, the acquisition of PCMG will give it access to a new market of about 50,000 patients.

At present PCZ has five hospitals, seven clinics, four sanatorium medicine centres, an emergency ambulance service, a diagnostic laboratory, three pharmacies, a pharmaceu-tical wholesale unit and a medical supplies wholesale unit.

Mavit adds capacity at Warsaw hospital

Mavit, a healthcare provider with opera-tions in Warsaw and Katowice, has complet-ed a major redevelopment and expansion of its specialty ophthalmic hospital and medical centre in Warsaw.

The value of the project was PLN 6m (€1.4m). It involved the construction of a new admissions unit, seven new diagnos-tic rooms, or three new operating theatres. It will allow the Warsaw centre to offer a com-prehensive range of diagnostic and surgical procedures in the area of ophthalmology and to treat more patients, helping reduce waiting times for procedures such as cataract remov-al surgery or diagnostic tests.

At present Mavit is awaiting a decision from the Mazowieckie branch of the National Health Fund (NFZ) on whether to award funding to its Warsaw centre for specialist ambulatory procedures.

In 2008 Mavit bought a hospital in Katowice, which has since been expanded from its orig-inal focus on laryngology to include jaw and facial surgery and ophthalmology.

Selvita keen to start phase 1 trials of first molecule in 2015 with help of partnerSelvita, the listed drug discovery and serv-ices group, is just 12-14 months away from launching phase 1 clinical trials of one of its two most advanced molecules, i.e. SEL24 or SEL120, but for this to happen, the company will need to raise substantial external financ-ing and is currently in talks with poten-tial partners about financial support, Pawel Przewiezlikowski, CEO and main sharehold-er, revealed in an interview with Parkiet on 18 December.

According to Mr Przewiezlikowski, the cost of pre-clinical studies of a single mole-cule is PLN 6-8m (€1.4-1.9m) while the cost of phase 1 trials is PLN 10m (€2.4m) per molecule. The company’s commercial servic-es business, while profitable, does not gener-ate sufficient resources to cover these costs, hence the need for external partners.

Selvita is prepared to sell the rights to some of its projects in exchange for a share in fu-ture profits, but is determined to be more than just a pre-clinical phase company and wants to take at least some of its inven-tions all the way to the clinical trials phase. It is also possible that Selvita will sell both SEL24 and SEL120 in order to raise capital for new projects. Talks about a possible sale are also in progress and one of the molecules might be sold within a year. However, that such a sale would have to bring at least sev-eral million zloty in upfront payments, and minimally PLN 100m (€23.9m) in royalty payments once the product reaches industri-al production.

Some investors have suggested that Selvita should separate the profitable commercial services business from its research activities. The company might consider such a move at a later date, but it feels no urgency about it especially since there are numerous synergies between the two segments. It might start pub-lishing their results separately from 2014 on-wards, however, Mr Przewiezlikowski said.

In Q1-Q3 2013 the value of new con-tracts for commercial services won by Selvita jumped by 24% compared with a year earlier and this positive trend should be maintained in Q4 and into 2014, according to the group’s CEO. In the words of Mr Przewiezlikowski, the services segment has huge growth poten-tial and its value could well surpass the cur-rent value of the whole Selvita group within just two years, as it starts generating net prof-its of several million zloty a year.



9

Two major institutional investors buy into Synektik

Templeton Asset Management, the glo-bal investment management firm, has bought 12.65% of shares and voting rights in Synektik, the listed diagnostic imaging and radiopharmaceuticals group, it emerged on 17 December. The day before ING OFE, Poland’s largest pension fund by member-ship, announced that it has 7.24% of shares and voting rights in the company.

Earlier this month Synektik raised PLN 30.6m (€7.3m) from a private share placement, which it said was backed by in-stitutional investors. The proceeds from the issue will be used to broaden the portfolio of radiopharmaceuticals produced and market-ed by the company.

Synektik is considering plans to move its listing to the main board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which could happen in mid-2014.

Invicta expands to Gdynia

Invicta, one of the country’s leading infertil-ity treatment providers, has expanded its net-work with the opening of its first clinic in the Gdynia market. It is located in Wladyslawa IV street in the very centre of the city.

The new facility brings Invicta’s network to five locations, including two in its native Gdansk and one each in Warsaw and Slupsk. Apart from five ambulatory clinics, they in-clude two one-day surgery hospitals and two diagnostic laboratories, in Gdansk and in Warsaw.

Invicta was the first infertility treatment provider in Poland to offer Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AHM) measurement and several other procedures.

Invicta is among the providers selected to participate in the government’s in vitro fer-tilisation support programme launched in July.

In August CEO Dorota Bialobrzeska-Lukaszuk told Puls Biznesu that the com-pany, which last year decided to bring in an investor, was constantly being approached by potential buyers .

More information available in the PMR Insight: Health Ministry uses programme to boost Polish IVF market.

Dent-a-Medical partners with Sodexo

Dent-a-Medical, the listed dental care man-agement firm, on 16 December signed a col-

laboration agreement with Sodexo Benefit and Reward Services, a provider of non-wage benefit and incentive solutions.

Under the agreement, users of Sodexo gift passes will be able to use the vouchers to pay for dental care services at Dent-a-Medical’s partner clinics.

According to Dent-a-Medical, the partner-ship opens a major new distribution chan-nel for its products and will allow it to reach a substantial group of new patients.

There are about three million users of Sodexo vouchers in Poland. The company has more than 37,000 corporate and institu-tional clients in the country and more than 50,000 affiliated outlets.

According to earlier information, in December Dent-a-Medical will launch a joint healthcare package with LUX MED Group, to be distributed by through a direct market-ing system managed by Medico Life LLC of the US.

Indexmedica borrows PLN 6.3m for hotel facilities

Indexmedica, the dental care provider list-ed on NewConnect, on 18 December an-nounced that it had taken out two five-year loans worth PLN 3.15m (€0.75m) each in or-

PMR Insight: Health Ministry uses programme to boost Polish IVF marketThe Polish in vitro fertilisation (IVF) market is worth around PLN 150m (€3�m), according to Medicover. Infertility is a problem which affects 15-20% couples in Poland.IVF methods for infertility treatment are of-fered by several dozen facilities in Poland (fewer than 50), but there are only 10 sig-nificant market players, including nOvum, Invimed, Invicta, Gameta and Parens.

Almost €60m for IVF government programmePolish legislation has become an incentive for market development. This is because of the Health Ministry’s programme of the par-tial reimbursement of the cost of IVF which commenced on 1 July. The ministry calcu-lates that about 2,000 couples will benefit from the programme in its first year, rising to 5,500 in the second year and �,500 in the

third. Its total cost is estimated to be slightly more than PLN 24�m (€59.3m) over its three-year lifetime.The government programme is helping to change perceptions of infertility as a medical problem and raise awareness of the IVF pro-cedure, in addition to its purely financial im-pact. This has led to a rise in the volume of IVF procedures and will accelerate the growth of the industry in 2014.There are 2� healthcare providers which have received financial resources from the pro-gramme. These include some of the coun-try’s leading infertility treatment providers: Invimed, Gameta and Parens, whose clinics have received financial resources in more than one voivodship.

Recent investments in IVF marketBefore the programme was implemented, some private medical companies had started to observe the potential of this area of the market. As a result, in March 2012, Medicover took over InviMed Europejskie Centrum Macierzynstwa,

whereas in November 2012, Enel-Med began its cooperation with the Warsaw-based nOvum, a fertility outpatient clinic.In 2013 Nickel Technology Park Poznan (NTPP), Poland’s first privately-owned tech-nology park and business incubator, which focuses on pharmaceutical and biotech ven-tures, bought 23% of the shares of Centrum Ginekologii i Leczenia Nieplodnosci (CGLN), a start-up infertility treatment provider owned by Ivi, in a transaction worth PLN 0.�m (€0.2m). CGLN’s first clinic is due to open at NTPP’s Poznan premises in Q1 2014. Ivi’s long-term plan for the new firm is to create a network of four clinics in large cities over the next five years.In addition, Invicta, one of the country’s lead-ing infertility treatment providers, decided to bring in an investor last year, and it is said that potential buyers are approaching it on a con-stant basis.

The PMR Insight relates to the following news item: Invicta expands to Gdynia.



10

der to provide financial support to Centrum Zdrowia Indexmedica (CZI), the subsidiary responsible for the company’s expansion into hotel services.

Earlier this month CZI leased a newly con-structed building in Krakow and is due to open a hotel there in the second quarter of 2014, following necessary adaptation work whose cost is estimated at PLN 3m (€0.7m).

In the third quarter Indexmedica made a strategic decision to invest in hotel facili-ties, so as to strengthen its competitive po-sition in the market for dental tourism and to create a new revenue stream. According to the company, dental care firms in Hungary, which have emerged as a leading force in the

dental tourism market, are increasingly offer-ing hotel facilities to patients.

Further increase of flu numbers in 8-15 December

There was a further increase in flu incidence between 8 and 15 December 2013 in compar-ison to the immediately preceding reporting period (1-7 December) and on a yearly ba-sis, according to latest data from the National Institute of Hygiene (PZH).

Hence, a total of 63,501 confirmed and sus-pected flu cases were reported in the peri-od in question, up by 3.9% in comparison to

61,116 in the immediately preceding report-ing period.

At the same time, the daily morbidity rate decreased in 8-15 December and amounted to 20.60 per 100,000 inhabitants, down from 22.66 in the immediately preceding report-ing period.

On a year-on-year basis flu cases increased by 2.47% from 61,968 in 8-15 December 2012.

The voivodship of Pomorskie continued to report extremely high flu numbers (16,893), and a daily morbidity rate increased to 92.21 from 88.97 in 1-7 December 2013.

n

Healthcare providers based in specific voivodships taking part in IVF health programme in Poland, 2013

83.238.123.4

Voivodship Clinics

Amount received

(PLN)

Dolnoslaskie Invimed 3,324,389

Kujawsko-Pomorskie NZOZ Centrum Medyczne 2,824,397

Lubelskie

Ab Ovo 731,774

OVUM Rozrodczosc i Andrologia 1,407,392

Lodzkie

Gameta Szpital 3,140 ,754

Salvemedica 2,195,323

Malopolskie

Centrum Medyczne "Macierzynstwo” 2,831,841

Parens n.d.

Mazowieckie

Invimed 3,255,741

nOvum 3,072,107

Szpital Kliniczny Dzieciatka Jezus (Child Jesus Clinical Hospital) 2,487,494

Opolskie GMW-Embrio 1,915,200

Podkarpackie Parens 1,268 400

Podlaskie

Centrum Połozniczo -Ginekologiczne "Bocian” 3,75,078

Kriobank 3,211,129

Uniwersytecki Szpital Kliniczny w Bialymstoku (University Hospital in Bialystok) 2,934,812

Pomorskie

Gameta n.d.

Invicta 2,797,517

Invimed 1,921,358

Slaskie

Gyncetrum Clinic n.d.

Novomedica 2,870,790

Provita 3,388,518

Swietokrzyskie Gameta 2,433,240

Wielkopolskie

Ginekologiczno-Połozniczy Szpital Kliniczny Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Poznaniu (Gynaecology and Obstetrics Hospital of

the Medical University in Poznan)

3,297,296

Zachodniopomorskie

Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Kliniczny Nr 1 im. T. Sokolowskiego ( T. Sokolowski Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 1) 1,764,120

Vitrolive 3,115,384

Total 26 59,364,054

n.d. – no dataNote: No clinics applied to take part in the programme in the Lubuskie and Warminsko-Mazurskie voivodships

Source: Health Ministry, 2013www.pmrpublications.com



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Pharma Poland News – Weekly News Briefing – A prime source of market intelligence for pharma professionalsPublished by PMR, www.pharmapoland.comul. Dekerta 24, 30-�03 Kraków, Poland, Tel. /4�/ 12 �1� 90 00, Fax /4�/ 12 �1� 90 0�, [email protected]

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