Galenika a.d. ( sr-cyr, Галеника а.д.) is a Serbian

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympt ...

with headquarters in

Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

History

Founded in 1945, Galenika was a major pharmaceutical drug-maker in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

with exports to Europe, Africa and Asia. During its golden times, it was the greatest Yugoslav pharmaceutical company which controlled over 65% of SFR Yugoslavia market share. In 1991, the company was bought by American ICN Pharmaceuticals, led by Serbian American businessman Milan Panić. Even during the 1990s Yugoslav Wars and massive debts of FR Yugoslavia toward the company, it kept operating positive. In 1999, by political decision of

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

's regime, the FR Yugoslavia took over the majority stake of the company. Following the

overthrow of Slobodan Milošević The overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, began after the presidential election on 24 September and culminated in the downfall of Slobodan Milošević's government on 5 October 2000. It is sometimes referred to as the 5 Oct ...

in October 2000, the company returned on track and each year had tens of million euros of positive net income. As of 2006, Galenika remained a leader in research and development as the only pharmaceutical company in Serbia with an institute registered with the Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection. However, from 2008 to 2010, Galenika rapidly accumulated debt to the point where it owed 130 million euros. Once controlling a majority market share in Serbia and former Yugoslavia, during the 2010s it became indebted company. By the 2010s, most of the Serbian formerly domestically controlled pharmaceutical market, has shifted in foreign hands. Since 2013, the

Government of Serbia The Government of Serbia ( sr, Влада Србије, Vlada Srbije), formally the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr, Влада Републике Србије, Vlada Republike Srbije), commonly abbreviated to Serbian Government ( sr, � ...

has begun seeking a partner for Galenika through the privatization process. However, over the years several privatization auction processes have failed. In August 2017, the

converted company's debts to state into shares in ownership structure, worth 14.696 billion dinars (122.81 million euros). As of 2017, Galenika controlled around 10% of market share in Serbia. In November 2017, Luxembourg's investment fund Aelius (related to the Brazilian largest pharmaceutical company EMS) purchased 93.73% of the company's shares from the Government of Serbia for a total of 16 million euros.

Logos

From 1945, Galenika has changed five different logos. The first logo of company was used from 1945 to 1992, the second logo from 1992 to 1998 (which has been marked as ICN Galenika), the third logo was used from 1998 to 2002, the fourth logo has been in use from 2002 to 2021, and the fifth and incumbent logo is in use since 2021.

Market and financial data

According to 2016 annual financial report submitted to Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR), the company has 1,595 employees and it posted an annual loss of 10.45 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. As of 30 January 2018, Galenika has a

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

63.17 million.

Fraud

In October 2018, several high-ranking former officials of the company were sentenced before Belgrade's Special Court for the "fraud by abuse of position", in which they damaged the company for multimillion-euro bills.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.galenika.rs 1945 establishments in Serbia 2017 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Belgrade Pharmaceutical companies established in 1945 Pharmaceutical companies of Serbia Serbian brands