Life Is Good When We Are Healthy!

Sopharma is the leading Bulgarian pharmaceutical producer with a portfolio of more than 210 products, more than 10 percent of which are developed by the company and based on the richness and bounty provided by nature to us humans. The herbal portfolio includes medicines extracted from Silybum marianum L., Glaucium flavum Crantz, Hypericum perforatum L., Tribulus terrestris L., Leucojum aеstivum L., Cytisus laburnum, etc.

Since the company’s privatization in 2000, the management team has strived to bring forth the new values of sustainability and innovation through modernization of the company’s production facilities and the realization of a number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects in the community. We believe that CSR is what we do when no one is watching us. The continuous efforts have brought us to a natural unfolding of our potential. In 2010 alone we achieved over €102 million in revenues on an individual basis and close to €306 million on a consolidated basis. Our net profit rounded up to €20 million in the same year. As a public company, we are a leader in the largest index on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange – Sofia, the SOFIX. We have created a big regional family with more than 15 daughter companies and we export our products in 38 countries on four continents. We realize we are a member of the global family, with all of the responsibilities that come with it.

The last 10 years have been filled with intense reconstruction and equipment selection and purchases. In 2010 Sopharma began its most ambitious and outstanding project – the construction of a new solid forms production facility in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The facility will be completed and fully operational in the beginning of 2013. The project for the construction of the facility won a first-class investment award from the Investment Agency in Bulgaria back in 2007, but the realization was postponed due to the international financial and economic crisis. The project is for a state-of-the-art green building with more than 20,000 square meters of usable space.

Sopharma’s existing production complies fully with the respective legislative ecological impact limits, but our wish was to go one step further and exploit all available innovative technology to reduce our ecological footprint as much as possible. As a result, the new project envisages the building to be loaded with 8,000 square meters of photovoltaic equipment. The initial simple simulation for the Sofia region using the publicly available tools of the European Commission indicates that the likely annual output will exceed 450,000 kWh.

The effect will be doubled: Not only will the production cycle be almost entirely independent from public energy sources, but there will also be a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. The CO2 emission reductions, according to Ordinance RD-16-1058, will most likely reach up to 900 tons per year.

• Insulation
  The building walls are insulated with special industrial panels that are highly efficient in saving energy for creating the required microclimate. In the winter, the panels function as insulation from the cold and in the summer they keep the heat out. The special microclimate requirements according to Good Manufacturing Practice usually would mean higher energy costs, which will be reduced by more than half with the introduction of the most efficient insulation available.
  
• Environment
  The building will be surrounded by a park area providing an attractive and environmentally friendly working environment. The 40,000 square meters of garden and green roofs will extend the industrial arm into the natural green colors, adding a soothing touch to the gray glass facade.
  
• Materials
  One of the most significant environmental impacts will come from the replacement of volatile organic compounds (VOC) during the process of covering the filmed tablets and the reduction of VOC in the granulating process. The replacement of VOC with water will lead to a total annual reduction of 20,000 kg of isopropanol and 9,200 kg of acetone.
• Experience
  Sopharma has already built a number of ecological production sites, including the GMP-certified injectables facility, suppositories facility, liophillic facility, phytochemistry, etc. The latest project, which was partially financed by an EU funding program for competitiveness, was completed this year in one of our daughter companies in the Rose Valley: Bulgarian Rose – Sevtopolis. It is the facility for the extraction of active ingredients from herbs. The facility is GMP-certified and and is located in the center of the country.