Wörwag Pharma is a medium-sized[1] family-owned[2] pharmaceutical company headquartered in Böblingen, Germany with subsidiaries in Asia, Europe and South America.[3] It was founded in 1971 by pharmacist Fritz Wörwag in Stuttgart.[4] It sells prescription and over-the-counter preparations and food supplements.[5]
Wörwag Pharma specializes in biofactors, which include vitamins, minerals, and trace elements.[6]
The city pharmacy was founded in 1965 in Zuffenhausen, a district of Stuttgart.[8] In the early 1970s, the owner Fritz Wörwag started producing and selling his own pharmaceutical products,[9] which was the basis for the founding of Wörwag Pharma in the adjacent building of the pharmacy in 1971.[5][10] The company's first micronutrient preparation was Magnerot Classic for the treatment of magnesium deficiency.[11][12] To accelerate the development of the business, the company was converted into a corporation in 1977.[13] In 1985, the product range was expanded to include the drug Milgamma with the active ingredient benfotiamine, a prodrug of vitamin B1.[12]
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Wörwag Pharma focused on the newly opened market in Eastern Germany and continued to expand in the direction of Eastern Europe.[14][15] In 1993, a branch opened in Hungary – the first international site outside of Germany – and later, other branches in Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Russia, and Central Asia were added.[11] Wörwag Pharma focused its production on vitamins, trace elements[16] and generic drugs.[17] Since then, Wörwag Pharma has also been present in Asian and South American countries, for example, in Vietnam and Peru.[18]
In 1996, Wörwag Pharma relocated its head office from Stuttgart to Böblingen.[19][20] In 2001, the two children, Marcus Wörwag and Monika Wörwag, took over management of the company from their father.[2] They continued the expansion course of Wörwag Pharma and concentrated primarily on biofactors.[5] They spun off the generics business in 2015 into the independent subsidiary AAA-Pharma.[21] In January 2019, Marcus Wörwag moved from the management to the advisory board, where he continues to shape the strategic direction of the group.[22] In 2021, Monika Wörwag also withdrew from the management and has since been Director of Corporate Communications.[23]
Wörwag Pharma offers medicinal products in the four categories diabetic concomitant diseases, nervous system, immune system and musculoskeletal system.[14] Wörwag Pharma refers to the products it sells as "biofactors".[25] Overall, the company's product range includes 26 biofactor brands in Germany. Magnerot and Milgamma are still two significant brands in Wörwag Pharma's product range.[5]
Wörwag Pharma GmbH & Co. KG is a limited partnership (Kommanditgesellschaft) according to German law. Its general partner is Dr. Fritz Wörwag GmbH, a limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung),[3] wholly owned by the entrepreneurial family.[26] Besides, the founder and other family members are directly or indirectly involved as limited partners. The vast majority of liability contributions by the limited partners is apportioned to the family-owned Wörwag GmbH and Wörwag Pharma Beteiligung GmbH.[3]
The annual financial statements of Wörwag Pharma GmbH & Co. KG is included in the consolidated financial statements of Wörwag Pharma Beteiligung GmbH. The latter holds equity interests in three further domestic and ten foreign subsidiaries.[27] Wörwag Pharma International GmbH controls the international subsidiaries.[27] In addition to Wörwag Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, which is the largest subsidiary, this includes Fibeg Immobilien GmbH, Generosan GmbH and Wörwag Pharma International GmbH, the latter two controlling the international holdings. In addition, the holding company has a 35% stake in AAA-Pharma GmbH, which markets generics.[27]
The management of Wörwag Pharma consists of Gerhard Mayer and Jochen Schlindwein.[28] Mayer and Schlindwein are authorized signatories of Wörwag Pharma GmbH & Co. KG and at the same time are also directors of Dr. Fritz Wörwag GmbH.[3][26]
On the Flugfeld, an inter-municipal residential area and industrial park between Böblingen and Sindelfingen, Wörwag Pharma moved into a new company building in 2021.[29] The previous company headquarters were located in the Calwer Straße in Böblingen.[30] In addition to the headquarters, there are more than 20 country offices, for instance in Almaty, Baku, Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Chișinău, Cluj-Napoca, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Kyiv, Lima, Ljubljana, Minsk, Moscow, Beijing, Riga, Sofia, Tashkent, Tbilisi, and Warsaw. These offices manage the business in about 35 countries.[31] The company also has its own production facility in Konstantynów Łódzki, Poland (near Łódź).[24]
Since 1988, the company has been awarding the Fritz Wörwag Research Award, established by founder Fritz Wörwag and named after him, at irregular intervals.[32] The award is endowed with 10,000 euros and recognizes research papers and well-founded reviews that make significant contributions to new experimental or clinical findings in the field of biofactors. The award winners are selected by an independent jury.[33]
