French-based Sanofi-Aventis cemented its position as leading drug maker in Romania with the recently-completed integration process of the Czech Zentiva (present in Romania via Sicomed). Sanofi-Aventis reported 730 million lei sales (€190 million) for the 12 months through August 2009, and a market share of 10%.

According to pharma market research company Cegedim, consolidated sales for August 2008-August 2009 confirm Sanofi-Aventis’ leading position in terms of value – with a market share of 10% and 16% in terms of volume. The group reported sales that totaled 730 million lei and operates 77 outlets.

“After Sanofi-Aventis’ takeover of Zentiva in March 2008, we started a complex process aimed at merging our operations, human resources, and product portfolio. The result is a complete business platform that brings us closer to acquiring our objective, of meeting all the patients’ needs. We benefit of the advantage of a domestic production and of an extended range of OTC drugs”, said Dan Ivan, country manager and chairman of the board of Zentiva Romania.

The annual production capacity of its facility in Romania is over 100 million boxes. One in seven boxes distributed in the local market is provided by Sanofi-Aventis.