Rock-bottom prices, regulatory red tape, and intense competition from Asia have made life difficult for Europe’s generics and biosimilar producers. Yet a handful of companies are not just surviving this squeeze but thriving in it – through diversification, geographic focus, R&D intensity, or sheer scientific specialisation. Here’s how four of them are adapting
STADA – Diversity & Autonomy
The German group STADA, one of the world’s largest generics companies with 131 years of history behind it, has had to diversify considerably beyond its historic business focus.
Once a pure-play generics company STADA has changed significantly under the ownership of private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven since 2017. Specialty pharmaceuticals (i.e. biosimilars) now make up over 20 percent of STADA’s EUR 4.3 billion in annual revenues (up from EUR two billion in 2018), and specialty sales surpassed EUR one billion for the first time in 2025. STADA has already launched a biosimilar to J&J’s blockbuster for chronic inflammatory conditions, Stelara in Europe and is now preparing a similar launch for a biosimilar to Amgen’s bone blockbusters Prolia and Xgeva.
Generics still account for 40 percent of STADA’s revenues, while consumer healthcare makes up the remaining 40 percent. Meanwhile, Bain and Cinven sold their majority stakes to another PE, CapVest Partners, earlier this year, in a deal valuing the company at around EUR ten billion.
Executive Vice President for Central & Eastern Europe Christos Gallis feels that this diversification is key to the company’s growth prospects as it attempts to maintain the nine percent compound annual net sales growth rate it has enjoyed since 2017. “The strength of the three-pillar model lies in the balance it creates,” says Gallis.
“No single brand accounts for more than four percent of our global sales, which makes us less dependent on any one product or market and gives the business resilience. It also creates opportunities to share capabilities across the organisation, whether in market access, pharmacy relationships, or commercial execution, not only within countries but across markets as well.”
The high level of autonomy given to its teams (Gallis describes STADA as like “a giant start-up), will also be crucial.
“Rather than relying on a heavily centralised European structure, we remain lean and give a large degree of initiative to our local organisations, which I believe differentiates us from many others,” says Gallis.
“Europe is not a true single market. Procurement systems, pricing and reimbursement frameworks vary significantly from one country to another, which means that success here depends as much on execution as it does on strategy.”
Zentiva – From Europe, for Europe
Over in the Czech Republic sits a company with an even longer history than STADA (tracing its lineage back to 1488), and which has also been transformed under private ownership in the last few years.
Zentiva spent a decade as Sanofi’s European generics division before being acquired by Advent International for EUR 1.9 billion in 2018. Under Advent’s ownership, the company more than doubled its revenue and EBITDA before it was snapped up by Chicago-based GTCR for EUR 4.1 billion in 2025, one of Europe’s largest PE healthcare exits of the year.
While others might have taken the opportunity to look beyond Europe’s borders for growth opportunities, CEO Steffen Saltofte feels that doubling down on Europe will be key to Zentiva’s success.
“Our focus remains entirely on Europe, spanning development, manufacturing, and commercial operations, with four manufacturing sites across the Czech Republic, Romania, and India supported by a broad network of external manufacturing partners,” he says. “That ‘from Europe, for Europe’ positioning remains central to who we are and how we operate.”
Saltofte is pursuing growth both organically and via M&A. “A good example is our 2024 acquisition of Apontis Pharma, particularly because of its focus on single-pill combinations in cardiovascular disease,” he adds. “By combining several off-patent active ingredients into one daily treatment, the approach can improve adherence and patient outcomes while also reducing healthcare costs and system complexity.”
He is also looking towards biosimilars, although with a specific and limited strategy that plays to the company’s existing strengths. “While other players are building fully integrated manufacturing platforms [for biosimilars], we are instead combining Zentiva’s commercial infrastructure and European reach with external development and manufacturing expertise through partnerships, co-development models, and CDMO collaborations.”
He continues, “We have already started building a presence in biosimilars across several therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease, and the experience has been very positive so far. More recently, we launched our first EU-wide monoclonal antibody biosimilar following EMA approval, specifically a denosumab biosimilar for bone-related conditions, which will now be rolled out progressively across European markets.”
Synthon – Supercharged Growth in Complex Generics
In the Netherlands, a far less well-known firm has had a supercharged trajectory over the past five years.
Synthon had been chugging away providing complex generics to other companies for almost 30 years before attracting the interest of PE firm BC Partners in 2019. CEO Anish Mehta describes the company he joined in 2021 as “a solid, well-run, quietly profitable business with excellent scientific capabilities and a proven track record in complex generics.”
Attempting to honour and maintain these fundamentals while expanding the business, American executive Mehta and the BC Partners team laid out a three-pronged strategy for Synthon. Firstly, it would double its annual investment in R&D, expanding both the complexity and the number of products it was pursuing. Secondly, it would broaden its geographic reach beyond Europe, and thirdly it would strengthen operational excellence across manufacturing and supply chain; ensuring competitiveness in an industry facing constant pricing pressure.
The results have been striking. While Synthon does not disclose its exact financials, Mehta notes that it delivered double-digit revenue and profit growth between 2020 and 2024. In the same time period, it has invested more than EUR 300 million in its manufacturing sites adding over 1,000 employees to its team.
BC Partners sold its majority stake in Synthon to Goldman Sachs Alternatives in 2025, at a valuation of around EUR two billion, more than double the EUR 750 million enterprise value at which it had originally invested.
Complex generics – the field in which Synthon made its name – will remain its bread and butter. “The focus on complexity is what underpins our competitive strategy,” explains Mehta. “We deliberately avoid the simpler, high-volume products that inevitably become a race to the bottom and instead concentrate on the relatively small proportion of off-patent medicines where scientific complexity creates meaningful barriers to entry.”
“However,” Mehta warns, “complexity alone is not enough. It must be combined with security of supply, vertical integration, and an uncompromising commitment to quality.”
Elpen – Made in Europe & R&D Commitment
Family-owned Greek firm ELPEN, while not as large as the above companies, is nevertheless aiming to have an outsized impact in Europe.
Most notably, it recently announced a new EUR 500 million European pharmaceutical hub in Tripoli with three factories alongside fellow Greek companies DEMO and FARAN.
“This investment should be seen as a concrete contribution to Europe’s healthcare resilience and strategic autonomy,” says Theodore Tryfon, VP of ELPEN Pharmaceutical and co-CEO of the ELPEN Group.
“By expanding manufacturing capacity within the European Union, the project will help diversify supply, reduce dependence on non-European sources, and strengthen the availability of essential medicines, not only under normal market conditions but also during demand shocks, geopolitical tensions and supply disruptions.”
ELPEN is also directing 15 percent of its annual turnover into R&D, an unusually high intensity for a generic player. “We continue to invest in R&D across generics, hybrid products, value-added medicines, next-generation respiratory technologies and lower environmental impact propellants, while beginning to explore selected opportunities in APIs,” says Tryfon.
“We recognise that the market does not always reward these investments to the extent we would expect, but for us there is only one strategic direction. If we want to remain competitive, reliable and relevant as a European manufacturer, we must continue investing in production capacity, quality, supply security and innovation, even if the value of those investments is not always immediately reflected in the market.”
