Invested through |
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Asset Classes | Listed equity |
Impact strategy | Impact Equities and Bonds |
ISIN code | BE0003874915 |
Aligned with SDGs |
Fagron is the global Business-to-Business (B2B) leader in pharmaceutical compounding. It offers raw materials, branded products and concepts and compounding services, thereby bringing personalised pharmaceutical care to healthcare institutions and therefore patients. Fagron operates with four divisions: Essentials generates half of total revenues (distribution of essential pharmaceuticals raw materials required to compound), Brands contributes 18% (essentials sold under the Fagron name), Fagron Compounding Services contributes 30% (personalised medication prepared in Fagron’s sterile and non-sterile facilities as outsourcing), and Fagron Premium Pharmaceuticals generates 2% of revenues (EMEA only, sale of non-sterile compounds registered in the Netherlands). Looking at geographical revenue contribution, its main region is Europe with 44% of revenues, followed by North America with 31% and South America with 25%. The company services pharmacies and institutional clients (hospitals and clinics) in 34 countries worldwide. Fagron NV has its registered office in Waregem, Belgium, with its headquarters located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The company was founded as Arseus NV, was the Professional Health Division of Omega Pharma, and had its IPO in October 2007.
Investment rationale
"Traditional medicine is the mainstream approach in most healthcare systems and follows a one-size-fits-all approach. Drugs and other therapies are designed and tested on broad populations and are then prescribed using statistical averages. These drugs are used to treat large groups of people with the same disease, like diabetes or cancer, factoring in some variables such as sex, age, or weight, but overall, doctors base your treatment on what’s most likely to work for everyone with a similar illness. However, by not considering each person's genetic makeup, traditional medicine can be imprecise, unpredictable, and ineffective. On average, any given prescription drug now on the market only works for half of those who take it (according to the Jackson Laboratory, an independent, non-profit biomedical research institution).
The necessity of having more precise and effective treatments resulted in the development of a scientific field currently known as “personalized medicine”, which tailors health care to each person’s unique genetic makeup. This is done through what is known as drug compounding, the process of combining, mixing, or altering ingredients to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient. Personalization results in benefits such as reducing side effects, enabling a greater drive towards innovative therapies, and achieving more effective drugs that eliminate trial-and-error inefficiencies that inflate health care costs and undermine patient care. At the same time, it can result in greater accessibility given that compounding can mitigate the rising shortages of different drugs and the discontinuation of previously manufactured drugs. Fagron is not only a pure-play compounding business, but it is the only listed company active in pharmaceutical compounding. Due to its focus on this field and its market leading position, we believe it aligns with our prosperous and healthy people transition theme."