Galenica

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Galenica AG

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN CH0360674466
founding 1927 (as Collaboration Pharmaceutique SA)
Seat Bern , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
management
  • Marc Werner ( CEO )
Number of employees 7,071 (2019)
sales 3.3 billion CHF (2019)
Branch Pharma ( NACE 21) , logistics , healthcare , IT ( NACE 63) , retail
Website www.galenica.com
As of December 31, 2019

The Galenica AG , headquartered Bern is one of the ancient physician Galen named, internationally active Swiss health - and Logistics Group . It goes back to Collaboration Pharmaceutique SA , a purchasing center for pharmaceutical products, founded in 1927 by 16 pharmacists in Clarens . This was renamed Galenica AG in 1932 and moved from Le Châtelard in Vaud to Bern. The Galenica shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

history

Galenica was founded in 1927 by 16 pharmacists from western Switzerland as Collaboration Pharmaceutique SA . Their goal was to set up a joint purchasing center. In 1938, Galenica laid the foundation for today's information management with the establishment of the scientific documentation service Documentation Galenica . From 1957 the company diversified in its core business through acquisitions and the establishment of subsidiaries. In the same year, Galenica also laid the first cornerstone in the pharmaceutical business with the acquisition of Panpharma AG and diversification into the sales promotion of parapharmaceutical products for pharmacies. Further pharmaceutical acquisitions followed during the 1970s, which contributed to the development and production of non-prescription drugs (OTC). In 1977 the Codex Galenica , the first complete list of medicines in Switzerland, was published in book form. In 1983 Galenica acquired Laboratorien Hausmann AG, which also had products for the treatment of iron deficiency in its portfolio , which were later marketed under the brand names Venofer and Maltofer .

In 1995 a strategic partnership was entered into with the British-Swiss healthcare group Alliance Boots , which took over 25% of Galenica shares.

The foundation stone for the pharmacy chains was laid in 2000 with the establishment of GaleniCare and in 2001 all activities in the area of ​​information processing were outsourced to the newly founded company e-mediat . At the beginning of 2008, with the acquisition of the Canadian pharmaceutical company Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, the now globally active, fully integrated and specialized Vifor Pharma was formed.

Ownership changed for the first time in 2007 when a consortium of private equity investors KKR and Stefano Pessina took over Alliance Boots; the Galenica shares were then held by Alliance Boots Investments 2 GmbH . The second change came in August 2014 through the takeover of Alliance Boots by Walgreens and the merger to form Walgreens Boots Alliance ; the Galenica shares remained with KKR and Pessina and were held by Sprint Investments 2 GmbH . The announced exit of the financial investors began in May 2016 with the reduction of the stake to a good 20% and the further complete dismantling by January 9, 2017.

Also in August 2014, Galenica was organizationally split into the Vifor Pharma and Galenica Santé divisions . The aim was to create two independent companies by going public for Galenica Santé through a public share placement (IPO). The IPO was carried out on April 7, 2017, after which the other divisions were renamed the Vifor Pharma Group on May 11, 2017 . The proceeds from the IPO are to be used, among other things, to repay the USD 1.5 billion loan that was taken out in September 2016 for the acquisition of the biotech company Relypsa. Galenica has been cooperating with the homeopathic manufacturer Spagyrik AG from Worb since 2019 .

subsidiary company

Galenica also owns the Swiss pharmacy chains Amavita and Sun Store , and it operates the Coop Vitality Apotheke joint venture with Coop . It is present in drug production with the subsidiary Verfora (until May 2018: Vifor Consumer Health ) and in logistics with Galexis AG and Alloga AG.

HCl Solutions AG

In 2001 the public limited company e-mediat was founded. The company operating today (2018) under the name HCI Solutions AG offers services and databases for the Swiss healthcare system. The Galenica subsidiary develops, maintains and distributes master data for service providers and payers in the healthcare market.

Master data tailored to the individual target groups and, depending on the database, around 100,000 to 220,000 articles from the areas of pharmaceuticals , medical devices , consumables, parapharmaceuticals and cosmetics are made available:

  • INDEX products: master databases for all IT systems (formerly: GalDat); When the products are added to the databases, the Pharmacode is also assigned.
  • Pharmavista: Online information service for the Swiss pharmaceutical market.
  • SwissDocu: Scientific information service on behalf of the Association of Swiss Wholesalers pharmalog.ch .
  • Technical and editorial operation of the swissINDEX reference database on behalf of the refdata foundation .

Documed

Logo of the Documed publishing house

The Documed publishing house, founded in 1976, also belonged to Galenica. Since 1978 this has published the Swiss Medicines Compendium . By obliging manufacturers to publish their drug information on Documed, the Swiss Medicines Agency Swissmedic has given Documed a monopoly , which Documed defends with dubious means, according to the Tages-Anzeiger . After Swissmedic had also approved the site of the open source software company Ywesee in 2008, Documed took legal action in court. The Swiss Federal Administrative Court decided in June 2011 that the Swissmedic practice was neither suitable nor necessary. Swissmedic was then obliged to make the drug information available free of charge on an Internet platform called AIPS . Documed won the tender for the construction and operation of the platform with an offer that, according to the Tages-Anzeiger, was noticeably lower than that of the competition. In 2016 Documed AG was transferred to HCI Solutions AG.

Investigation of the competition commission

In 2012, the Swiss Competition Commission (Weko) opened proceedings against the Galenica subsidiaries Documed, e-mediat and HCI Solutions because they were accused of abusing their market position. Instead of the publication of the drug information, Documed is to charge for the first time in 2012 for the publication of the drug master data in a database managed by e-mediat , with which hospitals, for example, manage their drugs and settle accounts. Too much money is said to have been charged, especially from small pharmaceutical companies. Several small companies were threatened with removing their drugs from this database, which would have fatal consequences for these companies. After a group of 16 pharmaceutical companies decided to set up their own platform in cooperation with Just-medical and Ywesee , the companies were offered discounts of up to 80 percent if they sign two- to four-year contracts. After the Competition Commission opened an investigation, Documed moved away from threats to remove drugs from its databases. In the ruling dated December 19, 2016, Weko concluded the investigation against HCI Solutions and Galenica and imposed a fine of 4.5 million francs.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Annual Report 2019 of the Galenica Group and Galenica AG. Galenica, accessed on March 12, 2020 (PDF; 11 MB).
  2. ↑ Change in the shareholders of the Galenica Group ( memento from January 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). Galenica, January 9, 2017 (press release; PDF; 3.7 kB).
  3. ↑ Juliane Lutz: Galenica is committed to splitting up. In: Berner Zeitung . August 13, 2014.
  4. ↑ Galenica creates the basis for two listed, independent companies ( Memento from January 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). Galenica, August 12, 2014 (press release; PDF).
  5. ↑ Planned division of the Galenica Group ( memento from January 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). January 19, 2017 (press release; PDF; 3.8 kB).
  6. ↑ Annual Report 2017. Executive Message Executive Chairman. Vifor Pharma Group, 2018, p. 4 (PDF; 6.7 MB).
  7. ↑ David and Goliath - Homeopathy and Spagyric from Bern is heavily funded , srf.ch, February 1, 2019
  8. ↑ INDEX databases - master data for health actors. HCI Solutions AG, accessed on May 23, 2018 .
  9. ^ A b Andreas Möckli: The dubious methods of the Galenica subsidiary Documed. In: Tages-Anzeiger . December 13, 2012.
  10. ↑ Andreas Möckli: Galenica subsidiary Documed also faced with allegations of dumping . In: Tages-Anzeiger . December 14, 2012.
  11. ↑ Thomas Wälti and Sandra Kohler: Contract partners of INDEX - Product Information for Developers and IT Managers. In: e-mediat. e-mediat, July 24, 2015, accessed on September 6, 2019 .
  12. ↑ The WEKO opens an investigation into the commercialization of drug information. (PDF; 92 kB) Competition Commission , December 12, 2012, accessed on February 21, 2014 (media release).
  13. ↑ Order of December 19, 2016. Commercialization of electronic drug information. (PDF; 6.5 MB) Competition Commission, December 19, 2016, accessed on December 6, 2017 .

Coordinates: 46 ° 56 '56.4 "  N , 7 ° 23' 59.5"  E ; CH1903:  five hundred ninety-seven thousand and forty-nine  /  199 769