BIMSA, the Argentine producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients that now belongs to Switzerland’s Ferring, has a new chief executive officer. The company has appointed the Argentine Daniel Crapis to lead its operations, which are focused entirely on export. The outgoing CEO, the Uruguayan Federico Gomes de Freitas, will remain responsible for Ferring’s fertility treatment Menopur internationally.
Two years back, while some pharmaceutical multinationals were upping sticks in Argentina, Switzerland’s Ferring bucked the trend and snapped up the local API maker Massone, now known as BIMSA, which specialises in the production of hormonal raw materials via two companies: Biomás and IMSA. See Ferring buys Massone group
At the time, Ferring’s existing number one in Argentina, the Uruguayan Federico Gomes de Freitas was selected as the most experienced person to lead the new acquisition thanks to his knowledge of the company and long history at multinationals in the region. Now things have been reordered with the appointment of the Argentine Daniel Crapis, who previously ran Ferring’s own local plant and later took command of the combined industrial operations after the acquisition of BIMSA, which employs nearly 1,200 people.
These operations include the Biomás plant in the district of San Martín in Buenos Aires Province, which focuses on hormone extraction, and the IMSA plant, in the Buenos Aires City neighborhood of Saavedra, which focuses on hormone purification. The finished API is shipped from this location to a plant in Germany.
The company also recently purchased the former industrial plant of the Coca-Cola-owned soy drink producer Ades in Pilar Industrial Park. With this new site, the group now has four plants in Argentina. It’s currently defining which part of the production process it will carry out at the new facility.
BIMSA’s core business is the production of natural active pharmaceutical ingredients from gonadotropins, hormones present in the urine of menopausal women and pregnant women in the first months of pregnancy. These are used in medications indicated for the treatment of infertility. Gomes de Freitas will maintain his position as global brand leader for Ferring’s fertility product Menopur with a base in Europe.
