Bad Vilbel, 26 August 2021 – STADA again demonstrated its resilience amid challenging conditions due to the pandemic by outperforming industry trends in the first half of 2021. Successful integration of recent acquisitions combined with organic growth opportunities during the first half of the year enabled STADA to continue growing ahead of its closest competitors. Having invested more than EUR1 billion in future growth opportunities during 2020, including the Walmark food supplements business, the former Takeda portfolio in Russia and the CIS, and the licensing of a late-stage Parkinson’s product, STADA benefitted during the first half of 2021 from the successful integration of these acquisitions in addition to organic market-share gains.
Through a solid organic performance, supported by recent consumer healthcare and specialty products acquisitions, STADA achieved 5% constant-currency adjusted sales growth to EUR1.51 billion in the first half of 2021, equating to 3% sales growth as reported compared to prior year. This growth came against year-to-date data to June 2021 from global market research agency IQVIA that shows a -1.8% decline of Europe’s off-patent pharmaceuticals market.
According to IQVIA data, STADA was able to improve its position among the top-five OTC companies in Europe, in the first half of 2021, now ranking fourth as the group outperformed its top-five peers. Also, in the prescription-only retail and hospital generics sector, STADA ranked fourth as the group’s sales fared better than the average for the top-five suppliers during the first six months of this year.
While adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dipped by -9% to EUR309.5 million in the six months ended 30 June 2021, impacted by channel effects in the 2020 comparator at the start of the pandemic, reported EBITDA climbed by 22% to EUR330.3 million on lower special effects versus the previous year.
STADA’s CEO, Peter Goldschmidt, commented: “I am proud of our diverse global workforce who continue to operate in an agile environment with high engagement levels in order to keep supplying medicines. Our unique culture increasingly positions us as the ’Go-to-Partner’ for co-operations and in-licensing deals. This, combined with our own strong pipeline, will enable us to continue performing ahead of our peers.”
While trading conditions in Germany remained tough during the first half of this year due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, STADA’s second-largest market, Russia, exceeded expectations, not least through higher sales of Branded Products as the local operation captured the number-one ranking in Russia’s consumer healthcare sector following the Takeda acquisition in 2020. At the same time, STADA also became the consumer healthcare leader in Belgium and is now a top 3 leader in several markets like the Czech Republic.
“Even if pandemic restrictions are eased in many countries amid rising vaccination rates, in many markets we expect a slow return to pre-pandemic norms during the second half of this year. There is still an uncertainty as to what this means for the market development in the second half and the cough and cold season during the next winter,” Goldschmidt stated.
STADA’s steadily growing portfolio and pipeline in consumer healthcare and specialty pharmaceuticals, coupled with its strong position in generics, puts the group on a sustainable growth course. This journey called ‘One STADA for Growth’ has continued in 2021. The group has strengthened its basis for sustainable growth through further acquisitions and global business-development partnerships in the first half 2021, particularly in the specialty pharma and consumer healthcare sectors.
STADA’s top-four consumer healthcare position in Europe is set to be strengthened further through two transactions with Sanofi. Firstly, STADA has agreed to acquire 16 brands from Sanofi, including: Silomat, Mitosyl and Frubiase in core European markets such as France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. This transaction, which follows STADA’s acquisition last year of 15 consumer healthcare brands from GSK, is scheduled to close during the third quarter of 2021.
Secondly, STADA will, starting from November 2021, act as the local distribution partner for Sanofi’s consumer healthcare portfolio in 20 European countries including the Nordics, the Netherlands, Ireland, Bulgaria and the Baltic States, as well as Balkan and Adriatic countries. The agreement covers approximately 50 well-established consumer healthcare brands currently marketed by Sanofi in these territories, such as Allegra, Bisolvon, Dulcolax and Essentiale Forte N.
At the same time, STADA continued to strengthen its growing role in providing differentiated specialty medicines in niches with considerable medical need. Shortly after the first half of 2021 ended, STADA announced a partnership with Sweden’s Calliditas aimed at registering and commercializing the first-ever approved treatment in the European Union (EU) for the chronic autoimmune kidney disease IgA Nephropathy (IgAN). IgAN is designated as an orphan disease in the EU, potentially conferring 10 years of market exclusivity from the grant date of EU marketing approval.
STADA‘s focus on its cultural journey is continuing, proven by strong results in its latest employee survey. More than 80% of almost 13,000 employees confirmed that they were fully motivated and proud to work for STADA. In order to bring this cultural change even more to the fore, the Executive Board team including CEO Peter Goldschmidt, CFO Wolfgang Ollig and CTO Miguel Pagan was expanded with the addition of Simone Berger, Head of Global Human Resources. “Our ambition is to create the best team in our industry with a strong growth culture,“ Berger commented. “As an additional upgrade, we also welcome our new Global Head of Specialty, Bryan Kim, and our Global Head of Consumer Healthcare, Volker Sydow.”
“By enabling access to high-quality medicines, STADA contributes every day to the sustainability of health systems around the world,” Goldschmidt said. “By recently signing a letter of commitment to join the United Nations Global Compact, the group demonstrated its support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3 covering Good Health and Wellbeing. Through the recently published annual STADA Health Report, we are able to contribute to debates around health policies and systems with scientifically verifiable data drawn from 30,000 participants across 15 countries.”
Source: STADA
