Caring for people’s health as a trusted partner: how STADA ensures effective provision of healthcare for the many
STADA is a leading healthcare and pharmaceuticals company specializing in consumer healthcare, generics and specialty medicines. Holding a number four position in the European consumer healthcare and generics markets, according to market data running to November 2024, the company is a major supplier of healthcare products in Europe and emerging markets.
Building on a 130-year heritage since its foundation by German pharmacists, it now develops, produces and markets a highly diversified product portfolio with more than 25,000 stock keeping units (SKUs). These are covering various therapeutic areas and a significant number of products with a leading top-three position in their respective disease categories in their respective countries in 2024. The German company says its strong market position is supported by its size, its well-known brands, its reputation, the breadth of its product portfolio, its local market expertise and its established distribution channels.
A global business, STADA distributes locally tailored product portfolios in more than 100 countries, with a direct presence in all major European markets, as well as in the MENA region, Asia and Australia. It benefits from established distribution channels built on strong relationships and sells its products to a diverse customer base that includes consumers, physicians, pharmacies, hospitals, mail order companies, buying groups, wholesalers and other service providers in the healthcare market as well as public or private health insurance organizations.
Working constantly to optimize and manage its costs, including through a cost-effective manufacturing footprint comprising 16 production sites across Europe and Asia, is central to STADA’s strategy. Besides manufacturing products in its own manufacturing sites, the group also outsources production, leveraging a network of currently more than 400 contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs).
Responsible procurement
STADA’s aim to deliver high-quality products efficiently and with high reliability is underpinned by a strong compliance foundation. Its supply chain management manages the complexity of a broad network of internal and external sites and to maintain supply in times of economic, environmental or political crisis. This incorporates crucial elements such as diversification of the production and sourcing network, a broad and flexible internal manufacturing capability, a best-in-class external supply management guided by an integrated business-planning approach, an efficient regulatory function and a rigorous quality approach, while ensuring long-term global competitiveness in cost of sales. Furthermore, the group employs a ‘Responsible Procurement’ approach with a focus on the assessment of prioritized suppliers by the external sustainability assessment platform EcoVadis.
Due to its large product portfolio, which currently comprises approximately 800 molecules or active pharmaceutical ingredients (API)s across more than 25,000 SKUs for various dosage forms and package sizes, STADA employs a large international network of internal and external resources for pharmaceutical production. The quality and safety standards adhered to in its own manufacturing sites and the respective standards of external suppliers and CMOs fully comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
This extensive network supports an extensive product portfolio that is organized into three segments:
STADA’s Consumer Healthcare segment includes a range of non-prescription products, such as OTC medicines, medical devices, cosmeceuticals and cosmetics and vitamin supplements, plus consumer products such as the household disinfectant Zoflora. Beyond Zoflora, other top-selling products in the Consumer Healthcare include the Nizoral scalp-care range, Grippostad and SNUP (cough and cold), Paracetamol STADA and Ibuprofen STADA for pain-relief, and the chamomile-based Kamistad brand.
STADA’s Generics segment focuses on prescription drugs that require a prescription and are available exclusively through pharmacies and/or hospitals. Generics offer a lower cost alternative to the substantially more expensive pharmaceutical originator products. Patent expirations and loss of regulatory market exclusivity of originator drugs feed this Generics product pipeline in the Generics segment, which encompasses a wide range of therapeutic areas including antibiotics, cardiology, gastroenterology and pain relief. 
As STADA’s fastest-growing business segment, Specialty encompasses biosimilars – biologic medicinal products that are almost identical to existing originator biologic products by demonstrating that they do not differ in a clinically meaningful way – as well as medicines designed for designed for chronic, complex, rare or genetic uses. This category includes innovative medicinal products addressing unmet clinical needs, such as for Parkinson’s disease or the first medicine approved in the EU and the UK for treating a rare, debilitating kidney disease.
The Germany-based group’s R&D activities are primarily focused on product development that translates new scientific discoveries into useful products. Through an established, international network of development hubs with a highly skilled workforce, the group employs specialty and complex technologies. A strong network of co-development partnerships enables the group to minimize upfront investments into in-house capacities. This strategy has resulted in a strong launch track record, as reflected by well over 1,000 individual products having been introduced in STADA’s financial year ended 31 December 31, 2024. Furthermore, a solid pipeline of new products provides the commercial network with further opportunities as markets grow.
In developing, manufacturing and distributing its products, STADA relies on approximately 11,650 employees around the world. With a strong track record of growth, both organically and through targeted acquisitions, the group aims to expand its business and further improve profitability by rolling-out successful developments or in-licensed products internationally, growing its business segments and driving economies of scale.
STADA’s historical roots can be traced back to a pharmacist’s cooperative founded in 1895 in Dresden, Germany, when a group of pharmacists started manufacturing pharmaceutical products under the name Standardarzneimittel Deutscher Apotheker. Over the course of 130 years, the company has successfully expanded from a small pharmaceutical undertaking focused on its domestic German market into a leading player in the international healthcare and pharmaceutical markets. In the financial year ended 31 December 2024, STADA generated group revenues of €4.06 billion, and adjusted constant-currency EBITDA of €886 million.