E German Pharma Firm Seeks New Markets In West

Eastern German pharmaceuticals company Serum-Werk Bernburg AG, based inSaxony-Anhalt, is using a low-price strategy to expand its distribution network on the western German market with synthesis and infusion solution products, said SWB chairman Helge Faenger when he opened a new plant for hydroxyethyl starch.

This product, until now imported from Puerto Rico, will be used as a plasma expander in accident and emergency medicine and in hospitals. SWB was eastern Germany's largest producer of infusion solutions in the period of communist government and it now has market share of around 40% compared with only 5% in western Germany. The company was privatized in 1992 in a management buy-out. Sales and profits in 1997 are expected to stabilize at around the 1996 level of 49 million Deutchemarks ($29.9 million) with profits at 3.5 million marks.