www.schering.fi

SCHERING GIVES THE RIGHT MEDICINE

The pharmaceuticals company Schering has invested 80 million euros in Finland since 1996. In 2003 the company will invest 20 million more.

The German Schering acquired the pharmaceuticals company Leiras in 1996. In March 2003 all the operations in Finland were united under the Schering name.

As generally happens with corporate acquisitions, the coming of a new foreign owner created uncertainty at the beginning. Now, more than seven years later, it is fair to say that the only thing that has really been lost is the name Leiras. More jobs have come. Schering Oy these days employs about a thousand people and the turnover has almost doubled.

Finland has been made one of Schering’s centres of excellence, but the company has not invested simply in research and development.

“Our biggest investments have been related to both R&D and production. Our investments might amount to 20 million euros during 2003. This would be more than the average since 1996, and the cumulative investments would reach almost 100 million euros,” says Jean François Grenier, Schering Oy’s President.

In 2003 Schering’s investment is focusing on the operations of a new subsidiary, MAP Medical Technologies Oy, and on developing polymer-based drug delivery technology.

One third employed in R&D

Overall, R&D plays a very important role at Schering.

“One way of describing the extent of our R&D activities is to look at the annual expenditure: on average, our R&D expenditure has amounted to 28 million euros every year since 1996. We are currently building a research pilot unit and laboratory facilities at Turku for R&D purposes,” Grenier says.

In Finland more than a third, i.e. some 350 people, work in R&D. The company also has very good results to show from its Finnish research.

“Products originating from Finnish creativity such as the MIRENA® intrauterine system and BONEFOS® for supportive cancer therapy are now among the leading products sold by the Group. We have special know-how in polymer-based drug delivery technology and in the field of bone research. These two areas are our main focus in R&D, and we have interesting new possibilities in our R&D pipeline in these fields,” Grenier reveals.

Adequate qualified staff a challenge

Finland’s strengths include a high level of know-how and a good command of languages, which makes the operations of an international company easier. A shortage of competent staff has not been a problem for Schering.

One means of increasing the know-how is, of course, to hire people from elsewhere. “The number of foreign employees has increased in our company. Naturally, the Finnish language sets some limits, and that includes for employees’ families as well. But in the Turku area the situation will be eased when the new International School starts,” Grenier says.

Grenier does not consider Finnish taxation to be a big problem. More favorable and competitive personal income taxation would ease the mobility of foreigners to Finland but the main thing is that the company can offer interesting work and a competitive salary. “Taxes probably do have an effect when a person has several jobs to choose from, but it might not be the main factor when a decision is being made - more like one thing among a number of things,” Grenier states.

Most of the production exported

When asked whether, as far as production is concerned, Finland is too far from the market Grenier replies briefly and to the point. “No, it isn’t.” He says that continuing production in Finland is important to the company.

“As Schering Oy is the northernmost centre of excellence within the Schering Group, our firm aim is to develop our operations in Finland in the future as well. Schering AG has six global production plants and seven regional plants situated in different parts of the world. Our Turku plant is one of the global production plants that manufacture products for Schering companies all over the world. In our production we focus on forms of special dosage and non-hormonal tablets,” Grenier explains.

On the other hand, with investment one must think far into the future. “When we talk about R&D or production in the pharmaceuticals industry, we’re talking about several years and the perspective is always long-term.”

The turnover for 2002 of the companies that were combined into Schering Oy in the spring of 2003 totalled about 206 million euros, some 80 per cent of which was exported. There are more than 130 companies in the Schering Group worldwide.

Photo: Of Schering’s one thousand employees in Finland 350 work in research and development. Success products developed here include MIRENA® and BONEFOS®.

Published 2004

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