Pharmaceutical company B+L, now renamed Valeant, is downsizing on a major scale in Argentina.The first step came back in September when the company cut ties with Máximo Pförtner.
Pharmaceutical company B+L, now renamed Valeant, is downsizing on a major scale in Argentina.
The first step came back in September when the company cut ties with Máximo Pförtner, who acted as regional director in the Vision Care business for Latin America.
Then came Argentina’s sudden currency devaluation and with it the exit of country manager Renato De Giorgi, who had no option but to leave the company. He was replaced by Carlos Cuiñas, who was responsable of surgical division.
The end for De Giorgi came after Marcelo Noll Barboza, the company’s number one in Brazil and Argentina, arrived in the country to evaluate the local business’s future.
Now those who remain at Valeant’s glamorous offices are sitting fast while Linkedin flickers open on their monitor screens. Most see a future of great uncertainty and, to be safe, are scanning for new horizons.
The outlook is not promising. The two floors the company occupies opposite what will be the ultramodern “Shopping Al Rio” in San Isidro are on their way to becoming half empty.
Everything suggests that the company will adopt a short-term plan to downsize and continue activity in Argentina from just one floor in order to make budget savings.
Valeant currently has a staff of 50 people plus around a hundred indirect employees at the Pförtner family’s contact lens factory in San Isidro, which was acquired in 2011 as part of a deal that also involved the integration of the Waicon brand. See article.
Valeant operates three business units in the country, the most important being the contact lens business Vision Care. The firm also maintains its Pharma and Surgical divisions focused on medical equipment.
In the pharma division’s line of business, which comprises medicines for ocular illnesses, the clear leader is Poen, part of national group Roemmers, which has 41% of the market in terms of units sold. In second place is Alcon, which lost a lot of ground after its global acquisition by Swiss company Novartis and accounts for 22% of sales.
North American company Allergan is third with 16% of the market and Valeant comes fourth with a 12% market share, ahead of Denver, Atlas, Elea and Raymos.
