Bayer to buy Steigerwald
pharmafile | May 21, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Bayer, steigerwald
Bayer is to buy herbal medicines specialist Steigerwald Arzneimittelwerk in a deal which it says is motivated in part by the desire to strengthen its position in emerging eastern European and former Soviet markets.
Among the pharmacy-only herbal medicines in the portfolio of privately-owned Steigerwald are Iberogast, a treatment for gastrointestinal disorders, and Laif, which is used for mild to moderate depression.
It is not known how much Bayer is paying for the Darmstadt-based firm, which turned over €61.3 million in 2012, but both parties say the deal should be completed by the beginning of July.
While information on the economics of herbal medicines is generally sparse, one academic estimate put the value of the global trade in such products as ‘conservatively’ around $30 billion more than a decade ago.
“This transaction is further evidence of our commitment to augment organic growth with strategic bolt-on acquisitions,” said Bayer chief executive Marijn Dekkers. “It will allow us to provide consumers with an even broader range of self-care options.”
Buying Steigerwald “broadens our product offering for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders and gives us the opportunity to enhance our presence in Germany, the fast-growing regions of east-central Europe and the CIS countries.”
Bayer will take on the family-owned firm’s 180 staff, and says the Darmstadt HQ and its sales organisation will ‘retain their existing structures’.
“We believe that Bayer, with its extensive marketing, sales, distribution and research expertise, is well positioned to take our success to the next level,” said Klaus Möller, one of Steigerwald’s shareholders.
The company’s aim is, it says, to offer “physicians, pharmacists and patients effective, well tolerated treatments based on natural ingredients”.
While there is controversy over the efficacy and safety of such products – for example, a poll carried out for the MHRA in 2008 found that 40% of people thought they were safe simply because they were ‘natural’ – the market for them is regulated in Europe by the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive 2004/24/EC, which came into effect in April 2011.
Under this legislation, each EU member state is required to set up a registration scheme for manufactured traditional herbal medicines that are suitable for use without medical supervision.
Adam Hill
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