DACH business realigned.

An international generics manufacturer wanted to streamline its DACH business. Over the years a portfolio had grown that put volume over margin: many listings, a fair number of them loss-making, driven by the logic of being present in as many tenders as possible.

In the generics market it is not added benefit that decides but the cent-precise price under state control: rebate contracts under Section 130a SGB V and the reference-price system. At the same time, the biosimilar wave is shifting the business. Since 1 April 2026 the directive under Section 40c SGB V has obliged pharmacies to automatically substitute biological reference medicines with cheaper biosimilars, a growing but more sales-driven field.

The company wanted to clean up the portfolio, shed loss-making volumes and expand the biosimilar business. What was missing was a leader who can steer these three movements at once.

A pure cost programme would have damaged the business. In the generics market, whoever only cuts loses plant utilisation and bargaining power towards payers and wholesalers. Whoever does not cut cross-subsidises loss-making volumes and suffocates growth in the biosimilar business.

The task therefore called not for administration but for a recalibration: prioritise the portfolio by margin, reallocate resources and align sales to the high-growth fields, without giving up tender discipline in the core business. A mishire would have either destabilised the core business or missed the biosimilar opportunity.

What was needed was a leader who combines three competencies that rarely occur together: an understanding of tender and rebate-contract logic, the discipline to steer a portfolio consistently by margin, and the experience to shift a sales force to new growth fields.

ANDRIS Consulting focused the search on experienced general managers and country managers from the generics environment, profiles that know the tension between volume load and margin pressure operationally and have already helped shape the transition into the biosimilar business.

We approached these candidates discreetly and personally. Alongside technical fit, entrepreneurial attitude was decisive: the willingness to make hard portfolio decisions and to defend them to both the parent company and the local team.

The role was filled with an experienced general manager from the generics environment. He prioritised the portfolio by margin rather than by pure volume and consistently parted with loss-making listings held only for the sake of presence.

In parallel he shifted resources to the high-growth biosimilar business and aligned sales steering to the fields where, since automatic substitution, closing strength and access to clinics and payers count. Tender discipline in the core business was preserved.

The DACH business was thus not managed smaller but realigned along its profitability, with a clear line between the margin-strong core business and the growing biosimilar field.