We are happy and feel a great responsibility to be able to lead Probiomed with Sanfer hand in hand, so that with biotechnological products made in Mexico, we can conquer international markets”.
Ricardo Amtmann Aguilar, president of Sanfer Farma
The purchase of Probiomed represents for the Mexican company Sanfer Farma its triumphant entry into the modernity of the pharmaceutical sector and the management team is already biting its nails to start working together and promoting all the potential by opening markets throughout Latin America with Probiomed’s biotechnological products .
This is how Ricardo Amtmann Aguilar, president of Sanfer Farma, expresses it, specifying that the operation includes a first seed capital investment of 600 million pesos that includes the settlement of liabilities plus an injection of working capital for research, new products, etc. And there is the commitment to continue capitalizing for another stronger amount going forward. He points out that it was a negotiation that lasted more than 18 months and had its financial complications due to the commercial bankruptcy in which Probiomed was involved, but in the end “we are happy and feel a great responsibility to be able to lead Probiomed with Sanfer hand in hand, for biotechnological products made in Mexico go out to conquer international markets.”
Sanfer is a pharmaceutical company that is turning 80 and in the last 17 years it has grown to such an extent that it went from number 22 to fourth place in the ranking of the sector in Mexico. And beyond the Mexican market, it has been acquiring companies in Latin America, so that the region represents 40% of its sales. The company today has 9,000 employees and a presence in 26 countries –practically in all of Latin America except Brazil– with its own subsidiaries in Colombia (where it has acquired three companies), in Argentina (2), in Peru (3) where they are the largest laboratory in unit production, and in Chile the most recent where they bought a plant that they are enlarging. In Ecuador they do not have a plant, but they do have offices and distribution centers, and from there they cover other countries such as Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay. The same, from Panama they operate the Caribbean region and Central America.
In addition, from Mexico they export animal health products to 18 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
In an interview with El Economista, the captain of Sanfer – who is the third generation of the Amtmann family as owners of the company – underlines that the strength they have in the Latin American market is reflected in a growth rate of between 15 and 18% per year, faster than the one they carry in Mexico.
He considers that this will be reinforced with the purchase of Probiomed, since they are acquiring the trajectory of many years of technology development, “with highly trained people, an enviable work team and plants with world-standard technological development.” He specifies that the Uribe family is selling control, but will keep a minority stake of 20%, where Jaime Uribe de la Mora will continue to sit on the Board while Jaime Uribe Jr. – who knows the biotech market like few others – will maintain the Company address.
Ricardo Amtmann comments that with the intense activity in mergers and acquisitions that they have had in 16 years, they have had pleasant surprises in terms of work styles and policies, so that it is not about imposing with drastic territorial seizures, and this time will not be different: “we are not going to change things, we are going to understand the business and little by little we will be able to surgically establish efficiencies·.
Regarding the products that they acquire with Probiomed and will seek to export, he specifies that they are: Etanercep, Rituximab -emblematic due to the great legal fight that Probiomed experienced with Roche- that today is in the process of being registered, erythropoietin, interferon alfa 2B and the hepatitis B vaccine. Besides, there is an extensive pipeline of about 10 products that are under development. Something important, he adds, is Probiomed’s ability to manufacture biotechnological products from the beginning, not only in the final phase, but also, counting on the stem cell, they have the capacity to generate cell cultures from scratch.
