Pliva

Pliva d.o.o.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Pharmaceuticals
Founded	1921
Headquarters	Zagreb, Croatia
Key people	Matko Bolanča, CEO
Products	Generics
Number of employees	c. 1700
Parent	Teva Pharmaceuticals
Website	www.pliva.com

Pliva d.o.o. is a Croatian pharmaceutical company, based in Zagreb, Croatia. They are one of the world's largest producers of generic Adderall, and have seen drastic increases in revenue with an increasing number of patients being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). It is the largest pharmaceutical company in Southern Europe, and Croatia's third largest exporter. Pliva has recently recast itself as a generic pharmaceutical company leaving its proprietary business behind.

Pliva was purchased in December 2008 by the international pharmaceutical company Teva Pharmaceuticals, and operates as part of the Teva Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (TAPI) division.

Pliva operates in over 30 countries worldwide and is the leading pharmaceutical company based in Central and Eastern Europe. It specializes in the development, production and distribution of generic pharmaceutical products, including biologicals, cytostatics, and other generics, as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Pliva has recently been hailed for its newer, stronger, and more effective forms of adderall. The FDA hesitated in granting approval until it had been thoroughly tested in a laboratory setting.

A team of Pliva's researchers, Gabrijela Kobrehel, Gorjana Radobolja-Lazarevski and Zrinka Tamburašev led by Dr. Slobodan Đokić, discovered azithromycin in 1980. Azithromycin is marketed in Eastern Europe under the name Sumamed and was licensed to Pfizer, who market it in Western Europe and the USA under the name Zithromax, where it is one of the top-selling antibiotics. Royalties from Pfizer provided PLIVA's main income stream until the expiry of the azithromycin patent in 2005. This income was used to fund expansion in Europe and the USA, although some acquisitions have been highly questionable, particularly the acquisition of Sanctura (trospium chloride tablets) in the USA, which failed dismally in the market and was ultimately sold again at a loss of about 150 million USD.