Pharmaceutical companies merge

Delta Ltd., an Icelandic company which last year purchased the Maltese pharmaceutical manufacturer Pharmamed Ltd., has merged with Pharmaco Ltd.

Mr. Steinthor Palsson, Pharmamed’s Managing Director, said "These are exciting times for Pharmamed. This merger means that Pharmamed is now part of one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies and the move will open doors to new markets."

Pharmaco hf. is an international company specialising in the development and sale of generic products. The company has operations in 10 countries and over 5,300 employees. The projected turnover for 2002 amounts to 220 million Euro and anticipated profits are in the amount of 35 million Euro. Pharmaco hf. is one of the most valuable companies listed on the Icelandic Stock Exchange (ICEX) with an estimated value of over 500 million Euros.

The merger of the Iceland-based company, Pharmaco and the Bulgarian pharmaceutical company Balkanpharma in 2000 created an organization with a strong position in the pharmaceutical market in Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and other Central and Eastern European markets.

The activities of Delta Ltd. have increased approximately 15-fold since 1998. Today Delta licenses access to its intellectual property and supplies a wide range of pharmaceutical products to client companies worldwide. The merger will further enhance the current position of the company as a leader in developing generic medicinal products in Western Europe.

Combining Delta’s scientific knowledge, expertise and experience with the production capacity and expertise of raw material production of Pharmaco creates an organization with all the characteristics required to service and expand the current business. The merged company will have production capacity of over 13,5 billion tablets a year. Production plants are located in Bulgaria in addition to the plant in Malta and two production plants in Iceland.

This development is a positive step for the future, creating a strong company with a large product portfolio and production capacity to support its customer’s growth into the future.