French firm takes over Nigerian drug manufacturing company, Swipha

Biogaran, a French pharmaceutical company specialised in generic and biosimilar medicines, and a subsidiary of Servier, on Friday announced the takeover of all the activities of Swipha, a Nigerian company that manufactures and distributes pharmaceutical products known for their quality.

This is an important step forward in the internationalisation of the French company Biogaran.

In order to develop new markets to meet its commitment to provide all patients with quality medication, Biogaran, a pioneer in generics and biosimilars, and a subsidiary of Servier, has just taken over Swipha, a Nigerian pharmaceutical company that produces medicines to meet local health needs. Its portfolio is mainly focused on three families of products: anti-anxiety and tranquillizers, antimalarial drugs and antibiotics, which treat Nigeria’s most widespread infections and health issues.

Swipha was the first Nigerian pharmaceutical company to obtain ISO 9001 certification in 2007. Approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014, Swipha employs 300 people locally and generated record sales of NGN 4bn (approximately € 20 million) in 2012. Beyond its production unit, the company also has a wide distribution network covering most parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most dynamic country, with more than 184 million inhabitants in 2016 according to the IMF.

Health issues are particularly important in Africa. Beyond significant needs for good quality, affordable and efficient medicines, the problem of counterfeits is also becoming of concern. The WHO estimates that 100,000 deaths are due to fake medicines in Africa every year. In this context, supplying Nigeria’s population with reliable medicines that are produced locally is a strong commitment made by Biogaran.

“Biogaran’s international expansion strategy is to create synergies by bringing its expertise and investment capacity in production tools to existing structures”, commented Pascal Brière, President of Biogaran. “Swipha’s know-how, network and reputation have immediately convinced us that it was the right partner for us. Likewise, Nigeria quickly came out as the best entry point on the African continent with its strong population and solid economic fundamentals, including a very dynamic market economy”.