Agata Jakoncic, the new country manager for Romania of US pharmaceutical giant Merck Sharp&Dohme (MSD), with annual turnover worth above 20bn dollars, says the group plans to grow in line with the pharmaceutical market.
"My objectives are set by Merck management and do not differ from one country to another. We will continue to launch new products after we introduced Silgrad this year, a vaccine against cervical cancer," Agata Jakoncic told ZF in her first interview since she was appointed in this position, early this month.
In Romania, Merck generated sales worth above 20m euros in 2006, according to the latest data available, and now ranks seventeenth among the top corporations with operations on the domestic pharmaceutical market. In late September, Merck held a 1.6% share of the market, according to IMS Research data quoted by Agata Jakoncic.
Before taking over the management in Romania, Jakoncic was a country manager for Merck in Lithuania for a year and before that she filled the position of business unit director in Slovenia, for six years.
"I am a pharmacist by trade. I started my career at a medical equipment supplier and then joined Schering Plough as a sales representative in Slovenia. I joined Merck ten years ago, and was shortly transferred to the headquarters were I was in charge of marketing, as well as research and product launches," says Jakoncic.
In her new position, she will manage Merck operations across a much wider territory - over 22 million inhabitants compared with just 2 million inhabitants in Slovenia. However, with a consumption of 217 euros/capita compared with 70 euros in Romania, Slovenia holds a privileged position.
Competition among companies is similar on the two markets, she added, however, the weight of generics is higher in Romania.
"Our portfolio of innovative products offers many growth prospects domestically. We do not have a target for the coming years with regard to market share, but we aim to work transparently," explained the new Merck manager. The company is present with 17 products in Romania.
The country manager position was previously filled by Adrian Caretu, the company's first employee in Romania, who is now a sales manager at MSD in France.
Agata Jakoncic, Merck's new country manager for Romania
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