Cairo – Mubasher: Ibnsina Pharma is expecting higher revenues in 2021 as the Egyptian government has no plan to impose a lockdown similar to the one in 2020. 

During an online meeting with MubasherTrade, Ibnsina Pharma said that pharmaceutical companies have learnt from the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and improved their performance in the second wave.

Growth rates are expected to pick up during 2021 from the downturn caused by the pandemic in 2020, the company noted.

Ibnsina Pharma aims to strengthen its focus on imported medicines and enter into new agreements with international pharmaceutical companies to be their distributor in Egypt during 2021.  

The company enters into agreements with foreign companies based on a fixed foreign exchange rate in order to hedge against risk exposure associated with exchange rate fluctuations.

The strategy adopted by Ibnsina is focused on increasing sales growth rate to exceed the growth rate of operation costs.

In addition, the company’s capital expenditure (capex) amounted to EGP 470 million in 2018 before sliding to EGP 360 million in 2019 with expectations to rise to EGP 180-200 million in 2020 and drop to 140 million in 2021.

Total local sales are expected to rise by 6-8% in 2020 as they reached EGP 73 million in the first 11 months of the year.

Retail sales, which account for 70% of total sales in Egypt, are expected to grow by 3-4% in 2020, compared to 8% in 2019.

The company also managed to increase its market share by 1.8% last year.

As for the company’s digital transformation plan, the company said it has already launched an application for pharmacists to send their purchase orders which will help in reducing operation costs in 2021.

The company plans to offer e-payment services through this app in 2021 which will contribute to increasing sales and cutting operation costs.

Moreover, Ibnsina is coordinating with banks to finance its customers of small- and medium-sized pharmacies.

During the first nine months of 2020, the company achieved net profits of EGP 200.6 million, down from EGP 245.6 million in the same period in 2019.