After 13 years under the management of the French company Servier, the Brazilian pharmaceutical company Pharlab has returned to national control. A group of investors, led by Nelson Libbos, former CEO of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical in Brazil, acquired the company and now intends to relaunch medications that were off the market, such as Resprin.
The path of Pharlab, which projected revenues of R$ 500 million in 2025, has been similar to that of Medley, one of the giants in the generic drug sector in Brazil, which was acquired by the French company Sanofi and is now in the process of selling its generic drug unit.
With the change in leadership, Libbos assumes the chairmanship of the company's board, and executive Eduardo Martins remains as CEO. In addition to expanding its portfolio, the company will accelerate investments in innovation. The goal is to reach R$1 billion in revenue in five years, with an EBITDA margin of 20% – more than double the current rate of 9%.
“I’ve been working on this opportunity for a year and a half. Eduardo was informed that the French group was divesting its generic drug operations worldwide. And he sought buyers so that the company could continue. And returning to Brazilian management would be very positive,” says Libbos, in an interview with NeoFeed, without revealing the amount spent on the acquisition.
In this new format, the company will be called Merrell Lepetit, a pharmaceutical company that operated in Brazil between the 1960s and 1980s and emerged from the merger of the American company Merrell Dow and the Brazilian company Lepetit. Today, the brand belongs to Libbos, which operated within the former company. The name Pharlab will be used for the generics division of the new company.
Prior to the acquisition, the investor was already developing the return of Merrell Lepetit, with prescription and OTC (over-the-counter) products. What was missing, then, was a plan for the generics area to complete the portfolio. The possibility of acquiring Pharlab, therefore, fit well at this moment.
“I called a group of investors and presented a business plan. Now, we are going to change the name, with the prescription and OTC division under the new brand, and the generics area still under Pharlab. And we want to enter the beauty and nutritional products market,” says Libbos, who has worked in the pharmaceutical sector for at least five decades.
According to the businessman, the name change is related to the connection that the Merrell Lepetit brand has always had with the medical world during its period of activity. As a generic drug company, Pharlab never had any activity linked to medical visits, which, in a way, distanced it from healthcare professionals.
Merrell Lepetit launched the Cepacol mouthwash in Brazil in the 1960s; the brand is now owned by Hypera Pharma.
The new company also plans to work on research and development for innovative medicines. The idea is to launch reference, prescription drugs and also have a line of generics. Pharlab was the first to launch the generic version of Venvanse in Brazil, for the treatment of ADHD, in June 2024, when the patent held by the Japanese company Takeda expired.
Based in the city of Lagoa da Prata in Minas Gerais, Pharlab has an industrial park with the capacity to produce 12 million units per month of the 160 drug presentations that the company manufactures today.
In this unit, the company will relaunch, before the winter of this year, Resprin, a cold and flu medicine that was very popular in Brazil in the 1990s and early 2000s and whose brand was not renewed by Johnson & Johnson.
With this, Libbos' group registered the name in Brazil, within the criteria established by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), and developed the dossiers for the registration of the drug.
“It’s a very well-known name and has always been very strong in the country. For some reason, they abandoned the brand, as has happened in many other cases,” says the investor. There will be six presentations of the medication, in the areas of flu and colds.
Another product that will be relaunched in 2026 is Lerin eye drops, which Allergan also discontinued. “This product also has a huge recall. And we're going to recover that. Allergan was sold by AbbVie, which has absolutely no interest in eye drops, only in Botox,” he states.
In its first year, the company plans to sell 1.8 million boxes of Resprin, which should generate R$14 million in revenue. Lerin is expected to reach R$7 million, with 1.2 million boxes sold.
But these won't be the only ones. According to Libbos, the new company has approximately 80 product studies with bioequivalence dossiers for generic drugs, ready to be launched as prescription medications under the Merrell Lepetit brand.
“Prescriptions expand the market share of generic drugs in pharmacies. I can launch both. They don't compete with each other. This decision is in the hands of the consumer, who can choose what is most convenient,” he explains.
In the new pharmaceutical company's revenue, generics will account for over 50%. OTC will have 20%, and prescription drugs, close to 30%. In terms of profitability, prescription drugs are expected to lead.
With the factory approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which has a similar role to Anvisa (Brazil's health regulatory agency), the company intends to partner with foreign pharmaceutical companies and export the medicines produced in Minas Gerais.
