Leo Pharma has celebrated 25 years in Spain by inaugurating its new central offices for the Iberian Peninsula, located in Barcelona. After leaving those it had in the Mapfre Towers, the pharmaceutical multinational has just opened 1,200 square meters in Via Laietana number 33, very close to the Cathedral and where it will occupy the seventh floor.
With a staff of 125 employees throughout the country, about 50 will work from these new offices. To adapt them, the company specialized in medical dermatology has made an investment of 300,000 euros.
Sustainability has been one of the main axes in its design: recycling and the reduction of paper use are encouraged, scanning everything, without any archive and controlling the prints that are made. Water fountains have also been installed and plastic cups eliminated, and the use of bicycles and scooters to go to work is favored.
The recently appointed general manager of Leo Pharma in Iberia, Nuno Bras, has presented last year's results from the new headquarters, which is also characterized by promoting a new, more transversal and collaborative way of working, with a common agora and rooms of different formats for teams, multipurpose areas and contemplating the possibility of converting the entire floor into a single versatile space to organize events. Likewise, this new philosophy has also been established through the elimination of landline phones, providing each employee with a laptop and mobile, making it possible to work from anywhere.
Spain, key market for research
The Spanish market obtained a turnover of 69.3 million euros in 2020, 1% more than in the previous year. This behavior has been more positive than that of the pharmaceutical company globally, with 1,358 million euros in sales, 6% less.The negative trend recorded in the 130 countries where it is present is partly explained by the impact of the pandemic.Looking ahead to 2030, the company aims to reach 5.2 billion euros in sales. "We are focusing on our 2030 Strategy centered on strengthening our position in the field of medical dermatology and covering the entire spectrum of severity of diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, through R&D as a strategic pillar," Bras defended.
The domestic market maintained good results during 2020, despite the pharmaceutical company's global sales decreasing due to the pandemic.To do so, the firm plans to launch a new drug every two or three years, so research and development will play a key role. Precisely, Spain is one of the key markets for the Danish group in terms of innovation, at the same level as Germany or the United States.During 2020, Leo Pharma invested two million euros in R&D in Spain, a figure it expects to maintain this year and in the years to come, the general director has remarked.
Among the investigations that Leo Pharma is developing in Spain, there are three clinical trials of a new drug for atopic dermatitis, with the participation of up to 19 hospital centers in seven autonomous communities. It has also supported a pioneering study in the country that evaluates the influence of covid-19 on venous thrombosis.
A quarter century in Barcelona
Leo Pharma arrived in Barcelona in 1995, thanks to the creation of a joint subsidiary with Laboratoris Cusí two years earlier. Since then, the Spanish market has been gaining weight in the Danish group, especially in its R&D strategy. "Today we can proudly state that Leo Pharma Iberia is one of our company's priority markets in Europe," Bras explained.Among the most notable milestones of this quarter century is the acquisition in 2015 of Astellas' global dermatology portfolio, which opened the door to agreements with other companies such as Bayer. Also noteworthy is the launch of Kyntheum, its first biological medicine for the treatment of psoriasis in adults.
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