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The international generic pharmaceutical company, Actavis Group, today formally opened its new management offices in Zug, Switzerland.
At a press conference to mark the opening of the new headquarters, CEO Claudio Albrecht stated that the generic industry “needs to change”. Payers, he said, need modern approaches to cope with exploding health care costs. Albrecht presents Actavis’ answer to this in the form of a new tagline for the Company: “think smart medicine”. The tagline, he says, relates to a bundle of concepts which should help to cope with this challenge.
Albrecht said: “This means that we have to come up with more clever concepts, for example offerings in managed care regarding dose dispensing.
“Actavis must try to be ahead of the generic industry finding new and innovative solutions. With ‘think smart medicine’ we will address our customers’ future needs. Actavis aims to become a global player in diabetes by building an international diabetes franchise around recombinant and analogue insulins.
“There are 230 million diabetes patients worldwide. We will be the first company in the future to offer the broadest diabetes portfolio.”
By challenging traditional thinking, Actavis wants to offer direct-to-consumer concepts in the area of dermatology and female health.
“Intelligent strategic partnerships will give us the possibility to be one step ahead of our competitors,” said Albrecht.
Albrecht explained that the global pharmaceutical landscape will change once many of the current top-sellers lose patent protection over the next few years. “In 2016, out of the top 20 drugs, more than half will be biologics, others will be hard-to-develop generics, such as inhalers.”
The CEO added that he is not sure there will be such a clear difference between innovator and generic companies in the future. “The lines between the two models are blurring. The generics business as we know it today will be gone within the next ten years. A key challenge for the generic industry – which was used to substitution and key accounting for many years – will also be the required scientific detailing of the new generation of products.”
Albrecht also commented on the location of the Company’s new headquarters. “Zug is centrally located in Switzerland, and close to Zurich, one of Europe’s major crossroads. We chose Switzerland because of the outstanding pharmaceutical environment, the availability of qualified personnel, the international atmosphere and the centrally located Zurich Airport.”
Today around 100 Actavis employees from 29 different countries are based in Zug. By the end of Q2 2011, the company expects all six floors of the 4,000sqm building will be fully occupied, with 150 people on site.
Actavis is an Icelandic company, founded in 1956. Following a number of acquisitions over the past decade, members of Actavis’ top management team were located in Iceland, as well as in various cities in Europe, amongst which were London and Copenhagen.
Actavis also evaluated Copenhagen, London and Amsterdam as possible locations before deciding on Zug.
