Tomas Mihal, General Manager for Germany at STADA, discusses the company’s diversified three-pillar model across consumer healthcare, generics and specialty medicines, highlighting its strong German market position, agile culture and five-year growth strategy. He outlines his priorities around acquisitions, digital and e-commerce expansion, selective biosimilar and innovation opportunities, supply resilience, stronger pharmacy partnerships, and sustained revenue and profit growth.
Could you share a brief overview of your professional background, your key experiences across different regions, and what drew you back to STADA to lead its German business?
From a foundational perspective, I am a scientist with a doctorate in biology, which remains a core passion of mine. Over my career in the pharmaceutical industry, I have progressed from a frontline sales representative up through marketing leadership across diverse geographies. My background spans innovative pharmaceuticals, generics and consumer healthcare.
I have had the privilege of working across a broad spectrum of economic and political environments. In Asia Pacific, for example, I managed operations in highly developed markets such as Singapore and South Korea, alongside developing economies such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. Navigating complex political structures, including military-led and communist governance frameworks, reinforced how drastically local context shapes operational strategy.
While living in Singapore was a remarkable experience, the opportunity to return to Europe and lead STADA’s largest affiliate was compelling. Germany is the Group’s home market and its single largest market, rapidly approaching a revenue threshold of one billion euros.
Beyond the scale of the opportunity, I held immense respect for the executive leadership team, having previously worked alongside several of its members during my time at Novartis. On a personal level, relocating closer to family made this precisely the right moment to step into the role.
How would you describe STADA Germany’s position and footprint today?
STADA is a German company at its core, with a history spanning more than 130 years and headquartered here in Germany. We also manufacture domestically, operating two production sites – one nearby, and a second in northern Germany, Norbitec, dedicated to biologics.
Within that heritage, the affiliate holds a number one or number two position in consumer healthcare, ranks second in generics after five consecutive years of outgrowing the market, and is scaling specialty as a genuine growth engine through both new launches and innovation. Few companies in Germany can claim that combination across three distinct segments.
On arriving, three things struck me: a deeply experienced team with a strong grasp of the business’s history and trajectory, a portfolio anchored by genuinely strong brands, and, following months of work this year, a clear bottom-up strategy for the next five years and beyond, targeting a billion-euro business within the next few years. Combined with new private equity ownership eager to invest in growth, this is an excellent moment to be part of STADA Germany.
Culture is often asserted rather than demonstrated. How do you define it here, and does it translate into measurable results?
Culture is central to how we operate, and it delivers results rather than remaining rhetoric. Over the past seven years we have consistently outgrown the market on both the top and bottom line, with Germany contributing the largest share. That performance is a direct product of culture, and it is one of the reasons I returned.
I would describe STADA as a large start-up. Decision-making is fast, hierarchy is minimal, and the organisation remains genuinely flexible despite its scale. That ethos sits behind four core values: entrepreneurship, agility, one Stada, and integrity.
These are not abstract claims. Our internal survey in Germany shows employee engagement and pride in the company both above 76 percent – a benchmark few organisations in this industry can match.
You joined 10 months ago with a mandate to sustain growth. What have you prioritised, and where is progress already visible?
My mandate extends beyond short-term performance; it is about moving the company forward structurally. What we have achieved is combining tactical execution with strategic planning in parallel, building a clear five-year-plus strategy across all three segments that defines precisely what we intend to achieve and how.
Since transitioning to a new private equity ownership in April, it has also become clear that growth will not be purely organic. Acquisitions, in Germany and globally, now form part of the platform wherever they make strategic sense.
The result is a clear roadmap: continuing to outgrow the market, as we have for seven or eight years; building toward the number one position in consumer healthcare; growing generics ahead of the market through disciplined portfolio management; and expanding specialty through further deals and market entries.
The portfolio spans three quite different segments. How do you balance investment across them, and how is consumer behaviour reshaping the first pillar?
We are not a generics company; the portfolio itself makes that clear. If anything, our diversification is a genuine strength – three legs are far steadier than one or two, particularly in a fast-changing environment. Revenue is broadly balanced across all three segments, each delivering growth and profit, and we want profit to grow faster than revenue so that we can reinvest in portfolio and new channels.
Within consumer healthcare, our priority is to strengthen the equity of brands we already hold strongly in the market. But the segment itself is evolving quickly, because consumer behaviour is changing on two fronts: how people decide what to buy, increasingly informed by online research and AI rather than pharmacist advice alone, and where they buy it, with e-commerce and social platforms now competing directly with the pharmacy channel.
Our strategy reflects both realities. We remain the strongest player at the pharmacy counter, which stays our key stakeholder given the breadth of our portfolio. At the same time, we are investing significantly in e-commerce-ready portfolio and in acquiring consumers through digital channels.
Turning to specialty medicines – biosimilar competition in Germany is intense. How are you approaching that segment, and how does it sit alongside your innovation pipeline?
Specialty for us divides into two distinct areas: biosimilars and innovation built on patent-protected products.
In biosimilars, success depends on pipeline discipline. Rather than compete across every molecule, we are selective, entering markets where we can genuinely win, including several niche segments launching this year and next.
On the innovation side, we hold a therapy for late-stage Parkinson’s disease delivered via a digital-enabled pump – a genuinely transformative treatment; I have seen the difference in patients within an hour of administration. We are also building strength in nephrology, with further additions to come.
Beyond that, we are the only classical pharmaceutical company in Germany active in medical cannabis, a highly flexible therapy in terms of dosing and application. The regulatory environment continues to evolve, and we intend to remain and grow in that space, particularly given its impact on pain management, including in late-stage cancer care.
Generics in Germany have long been shaped by the tender system. What is working well, and where are the structural strains?
Tenders have delivered genuine value: savings to the healthcare system rose from an estimated EUR 1.3 billion in 2010 to EUR 6.7 billion in 2025. But we are approaching the limit of what price competition alone can achieve.
Production costs are rising, not falling, driven by geopolitical and structural factors, and at some point further price reductions no longer reflect the true cost of manufacturing. When that threshold is crossed, supply reliability suffers, and we see the shortages and volatility that follow, because some companies simply cannot deliver.
Our position is not that tenders are wrong, but that the criteria are incomplete. Pricing should be balanced against two further pillars: proven supply reliability, and quality. A cheap medicine that is unavailable when a patient needs it is not a good outcome for anyone, be it the patient, the manufacturer or government.
Does manufacturing within Germany, or Europe more broadly, offer any structural advantage in that context?
The advantage sits at the European level rather than the national one; no single country, including Germany, manufactures everything domestically, since that is simply not realistic. As a European, and in many cases German, producer, we prioritise local supply wherever a product originates here.
That said, we cannot fully offset shortages elsewhere in the market. Scaling production to compensate for another manufacturer’s exit is not something any single company can do quickly; lead times to bring new supply to market run to six months or more. When disruption hits, the system as a whole lacks the flexibility to respond immediately, which is precisely why supply reliability needs to be treated as seriously as price.
How do you expect the forthcoming GKV reform to affect each of the three segments?
The impact is uneven. Consumer healthcare is unaffected, and generics has already absorbed comparable pressure for years through the tender system. Within specialty, biosimilars are similarly unaffected, since they already operate under open-house tender arrangements. The exception is innovation, where the manufacturer rebate is increasing significantly, a change we are actively working to limit.
Your own research suggests patients are turning increasingly to AI for health information. What is your view on its role in access and care?
Our data shows the shift is real: 81 percent of Germans are open to using AI, and 47 percent already use it for health-related questions, more than half once you account for the fact that this group includes most household purchasing decision-makers.
Importantly, only 19 percent expect medical professionals to become less relevant as a result. Pharmacists and doctors remain the trusted final decision-makers, and that is unlikely to change. What we see is not replacement but combination: AI paired with human expertise, making the overall process faster and smoother for physicians and consumers alike, depending on the portfolio in question. It accelerates understanding; it does not substitute for professional judgement.
Leading the Group’s largest affiliate through transformation is no small task. What is your approach to bringing teams with you?
Everything starts with a shared vision, a clear sense of where we are heading. Building that from the bottom up took around four to five months, but once people understand the destination, for patients and for the company alike, the rest follows. That shift alone has been significant for an organisation our size.
Beyond that, I am not a micromanager. If an initiative aligns with the vision, we move forward and execute. But every decision, long-term or short-term, still has to stand on its own business case. Return on investment remains the deciding factor; this is a data-driven organisation, not one led by instinct alone.
Looking toward 2030, what would you consider the defining markers of success?
Employee engagement is one measure I want to move well beyond its current 76 percent, toward 90 percent or higher. Commercially, we want to lead consumer healthcare outright, including in e-commerce and digital channels, which are becoming central growth levers.
We also want to become the number one partner to pharmacists specifically, who remain our key external stakeholder as the system evolves; biosimilar substitution and non-exclusive generic tenders both still leave real decision-making power at the pharmacy counter. Finally, and most simply, I want to look back in three years and say we outgrew the market every year, on profit as well as revenue.
How would you like STADA Germany to be perceived internationally, and what does this market mean for the wider European business?
First and foremost, as a culture-driven organisation built on its people, backed by a strong and forward-looking portfolio. This is a long-term commitment, not a short-term push. Beyond that, I want us seen as a genuinely modern, attractive company: highly digitalised, entering new channels with confidence, and simply exciting to be part of.
Germany’s importance extends well beyond its own borders. It is the largest market in Europe, and our performance here is effectively the benchmark for the wider region. If we do not win in Germany, winning across Europe becomes far harder. That is why this market remains our absolute priority.
