Pharmavit A Springboard For B-MS Into E Europe

Bristol-Myers Squibb has completed its $110 million buyout of entrepreneurial Hungarian drug company Pharmavit (Marketletters passim). This is seen as a springboard for a concerted push into the region.

Per-Olaf Wallstrom, B-MS International's general manager in London, noted that the company had been stalking Pharmavit for years because of its dynamic, western-style management, its founder Imre Somody and its efficiency and market leadership with its Plussz brand. Plussz is a low-dosage, fruit-flavored effervescent vitamin C tablet (which Hungarians are said to use to treat hangovers but which reportedly saw sales fall last year). Pharmavit also makes 57 generic drugs.

Analysts have said the move was a good one, since it gave Pharmavit muscle to grow from its current 250-employee base while giving B-MS a strong manufacturing and sales base in the region. This could allow the company to move into the dynamic eastern European drug market.