Croatia's largest pharmaceutical company Pliva - owned by the Israeli generic drugs giant Teva - expects a revenue in 2021 similar to that of last year, amounting to about 4.5 billion kuna (€600m), with 90 percent of the income coming from exports, state agency Hina reported on Monday, citing the company's CEO, Mihael Furjan.

Hina quoted Furjan as saying that “the most important objective is to regularly supply patients and other clients” with their products. He added that Pliva did not have any delays in supplies and that they managed to continue to obtain raw materials, “except for injections,” but that the company managed to overcome that too.

“We hired 300 people in 2021 while about 70 left, so that we now have 2,700 employees in total – including 1,200-1,300 in manufacturing,” said Furjan, and added that Pliva is “one of the largest private employers” in the country. He said that 70-80 percent of the company’s management positions are filled by women.

Export revenues come mainly from exporting goods, “but the company also exports its know-how, which does a lot for the entire Teva Group, which makes Pliva one of the better companies within that Israeli group,” Furjan was quoted as saying.

Originally founded in 1921, Pliva is best known for inventing the antibiotic drug azithromycin in the 1980s. It was acquired by the American generic drug company Barr Pharmaceuticals in 2006, and in 2008 Barr, along with Pliva, were bought by the Israeli Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the world’s largest producers of generic drugs.

Pliva projects that over the next five to ten years it would reduce the share of its revenue from the local market to 6-7 percent and that the share of exports would continue to increase, particularly to the United States.

Furjan said that in 2020 a noticeable increase in the consumption of vitamins was noticed, “due to the pandemic.” In 2020 the sales of antibiotics and respiratory medication decreased, although they rose again in 2021.

Pliva will produce a record 7 billion tablets, capsules and injections this year, which is “four times more than ten years ago,” said Furjan.

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)