Polfa Kutno to focus on drugstores

Polish drugmaker Polfa Kutno is to sell off a plant manufacturinginfusion solutions, withdraw from the hospital market and focus on the pharmacy market. Jerzy Mogielnicki, the company's director of administration, said the pharmacy market was growing at a faster pace. The plant is expected to be sold, to Fresenius AG, by early 2001.

However, the infusion solutions plant, products from which are sold mainly in the hospitals sector, generated 25% of Polfa Kutno's sales in 1999. Mr Mogielnicki said the drugs produced for the hospitals sector had not guaranteed the margin of profit expected of over 40%.

The Polish company intends to abandon production of its nutritional formula products for children and switch to pharmacy-only and over-the-counter drugs. Analysts in Poland believe that the financial position of the country's hospitals is problematic and that many fail to pay on time for drug deliveries while official drug prices are low. Polfa Kutno, which now produces 75 types of drugs, introduced 14 new items in 1999, ranging from anti-inflammatories, cardiovascular, diabetes and central nervous system treatments, as well as various vitamin products.