The FINANCIAL — Paata Kurtanidze, General Director of Aversi, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in Georgia has denied reports by local media about rise of prices on medicines.
“Over the most recent period it has often been said that medicines’ prices have increased by 50%. However this is not true. Prices have only grown by 3%”, Kurtanidze said. At the presentation last week journalist was awarded with a present worth GEL 120, a collection of Georgian origin medicines. Kurtanidze promised to make special 10% discount cards for media workers in the near future.
“Today Aversi is well known not only in Georgia and the Caucasus, but outside its borders as well as it is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Russia and Ukraine too. In Russia Aversi is the 8th largest and in Ukraine- the 3rd,” Kurtanidze said.
”Nowadays Aversi’s suppliers include up to 100 companies from 35 countries. Its partners are leading pharmaceutical companies from all over the world: GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis, Bayer, Pfizer, Nycomed, Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas Pharma, Actavis, Fresenius”.
Aversi owns 140 drugstores, 78 of them situated in Tbilisi.
“Today the company has 1, 200 000 customers a month. This is due to the low prices, high quality products and wonderful service skills Aversi offers. Four years ago low prices was the most important thing for a customer but today the situation has changed and high class medicines are preferred by the clients,” Kurtanidze declared.
“The company has 2, 500 well trained staff. Aversi staff are always being encouraged with bonuses. As a rule staff members’ wages are divided into two parts: the fixed salary, and bonuses. The company thinks that a fixed salary is very important, as it is a kind of guaranty for a person. But a bonus system is suitable for those persons who are creative and think of the company’s development. Today bonuses are very important as they are a means of stimulation in the workplace,” Kurtanidze said.
“Excellent service skills are recorded by secret observations which are made in each and every drug store. This means that an official is controlling the service yet nobody knows that it is not an ordinary customer, which results in an effective awards scheme,” Kurtanidze added.
According to Kurtanidze, it is known from European experience that the highest step in medicine production is internationally recognized GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standard. “Aversi-Rational was constructed according to this standard. So Aversi-Rational is outfitted with modern international-standard-corresponding American, Japanese, English, German and Italian equipment. There is also an up-to-date internal laboratory, where precise chemical analyses can be done to raw materials. Their prices start from USD 70 thousand,” Kurtanidze said.
According to Kurtanidze, at the beginning of business Georgian medicines did not have great popularity among customers but today this tendency has changed.
“Georgian medicines cost less than foreign medicines of the same class. They are not cheap because of low quality, it depends on the conveyor production. When only 1 000 medicines of Georgian origin were sold, the manufacturing of them cost USD 1, 50. Today the selling figure has grown and is 15 thousand. So productivity is grown and manufacturing has become cheaper. Currently manufacturing costs around 30 cents,” Kurtanidze declared.
“Over the most recent period it has often been said that medicines’ prices have increased by 50%. However this is not true. Prices have only grown by 3%. Aversi made observations on several products and it occurred that 30 medicines had become cheaper by 2%, 27 medicines had become more expensive by 7% and 33 medicines remained at the same prices,” Kurtanidze said.
One of the newest and most important projects for Aversi is the opening of new health care clinics. The company plans to open an additional 20 hospitals throughout the whole country.
“Aversi will open 20 new hospitals, one in each region of Georgia: in Kuareli, Batumi etc. Aversi already has a clinic in Marneuli and has already seen 7 000 patients. Nowadays repair work is being done in the Aversi clinic at 27b Vazha-pshavela St, Tbilisi. This clinic will supposedly be receiving patients in April 2008. The opening of the new clinics is costing USD 1 million. This is independent from the government’s project of 100 new hospitals,” Kurtanidze declared.
“Aversi and PSP are taking part in the municipal project though. This project is for under-privileged people. The government is giving them GEL 20 costing vouchers. Aversi and PSP decided to take part in this project and added GEL 5 to this voucher. The government has already transferred GEL 3, 900 000 for these pharmaceutical companies. On its side Aversi is pleased to be taking part in the project and helping the poorer population,” Kurtanidze added.
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