Genethics Pharmaceuticals Ltd is this year celebrating its 20th anniversary in business. In a statement, managing director Anthony Aboud said, "For any company 20 years in business is a significant milestone. When you combine that anniversary with competing for years against big global players and surviving the sometimes irrational bias against locally-produced goods. you understand why Genethics Pharmaceuticals has every reason to celebrate." Through its inhouse research and development (R&D) efforts, Genethics has launched a new product: Sports Balm Ultra. "T&T companies often get stick on lack of R&D and failure to innovate. The real challenge is to innovate in a way that makes sense for the company, the market and the end user," said Aboud. Dr Shaliza Mohammed, Genethics' quality assurance and research and development manager, said in the statement: "We took one of our best selling products, examined customer insight on how to make it better and then spent a significant effort to make it a reality."
Aboud emphasised the need to "innovate, evolve or risk your products and business becoming irrelevant. In our 20 years of operation, we have made pharmaceuticals for some of the biggest names in the industry. The upside was in terms of learnings and a virtual obsession with quality, standards and consistency. "The flip side is that when their business models change or their focus shifts from this region to others, the company faced significant exposure. What we did was to develop our own products and lines to insulate Genethics from the downside risk. This also ensured that we made better use of existing plant capacity and put this company in a really good place with respect to innovation and growth potential.
"There are new markets and existing markets to grow. Genethics plays throughout the Caribbean and there is growing interest from the significantly larger Central and South American markets. One of the learnings from Caribbean markets is around heterogeneity, different products excel in different markets. "Classic Sports Balm is our top seller in T&T; in the wider Caribbean, Arthritis Plus 2 Cream does much better. So we know that a significant research and market intelligence thrust is essential before we begin moving toward Latin America." In the statement, Leslie-Ann St John, Genethics' new head of business development, said the company will be launching multiple new products and product lines this year. She said the new product launch sets the tone for the company's outlook: innovation, improvement and growth.
