The senior staff of Grifols, led by company president Thomas Glanzmann and several members of the founding family, landed this morning at the Clayton industrial site (North Carolina, USA) to commemorate its 50 years of history. The public event is the first that the company has held since the outbreak of the Gotham City Research crisis and represents the launch of the new executive structure, which has as its main novelty the appointment of Nacho Abia as CEO.
With this presentation, Grifols tries to leave behind the stock market and reputation crisis created by Daniel Yu’s fund and exhibits industrial strength. The Clayton factory is Grifols’ flagship as it manufactures around 40% of the total production of plasma-derived medicines. Since its acquisition in 2011 within the framework of the Talecris operation, the Catalan pharmaceutical company has invested more than 1,000 million dollars (940 million euros at the current exchange rate) in these facilities and has managed to quadruple its production capacity at the plant.
At the commemoration ceremony, the founding family was represented by the directors Víctor Grifols Deu and Albert Grifols Coma-Cros and the vice president, Raimon Grifols Roura. The latter has sent a message about the future of the company: “Over the years, we have seen how our competitors have bought companies and merged, but they have changed their names. Grifols is still here. After 115 years we are still here and we are very proud of our name.
At the management level, it has also had the new head of the biopharma division, the main arm of the business, Roland Wandeler. In the last year, the company has made several signings to strengthen its executive structure, such as Jörg Schüttrumpf, as scientific director, and Miguel Louzan, as digital director.
“The success of the Grifols center in Clayton over the last 50 years is due to the work of the thousands of employees and their great commitment to helping the patient community have a better quality of life,” said Thomas Glanzmann.
“The Clayton center represents everything that is special about Grifols: trusted medicines, exceptional engineering, sustainable operations and a committed workforce that gives their all every day to make a difference in the lives of so many patients,” said Abia. .
With this act, Grifols tries to return to normality after a complicated start to the year. The Gotham City Research report sank the stock 40% in early January and the blood products multinational is still working to recover its value.
The company has several milestones in the coming months that could help the recovery, such as completing the refinancing started a week ago, closing the sale of Shanghai Raas and the presentation of the final results of a best-selling product from the Biotest portfolio.
