Copernicus Sp. z o.o. located at Litewska Street is one of the few global insulin injector manufacturers, the only one operating in Poland.

 

By 2014 the company supplied injectors to Bioton, a listed company holding majority interest in the Szczecin firm. Last year the remaining shareholders of Copernicus, Professor Alberto Lozano Platonoff (at present the Chairman of the Supervisory Board), DNHS (a Szczecin-based company) and Grzegorz Nowakowski (the Chairman of the Management Board) acquired shares from the biotechnology company manufacturing insulin.

 

‘Insulin injector is a flagship product of Copernicus. Our objective is to enter foreign markets and to introduce injectors used for other liquid pharmaceutical substances to our product offer. Negotiations with prospect clients, including pharmaceutical companies from Argentina, India and Iran, are quite advanced,’ says Monika Cimochowska, Project Manager at Copernicus.

 

Funds obtained from ARP Venture, a company controlled by the Industrial Development Agency, will be used for company development and foreign expansion. At the same time, the entity will participate in a financing programme prepared by Bank Ochrony Środowiska. Apart from financing, ARP Venture will also provide strategic advisory services to Copernicus. According to the lender, the funds will enable the company to increase production and sale of insulin injectors and to enhance investment attractiveness for other financial partners.

 

'We are proud that in the last ten years of hard teamwork we have managed to develop an innovative product, which can successfully compete with medical devices manufactured by global firms with international renown. We are glad that entities such as the Industrial Development Agency and Bank Ochrony Środowiska, willing to support development and global expansion of local companies, operate on the Polish market,’ said Professor Alberto Platonoff Lozano, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Copernicus, having signed the agreement with the Agency and the Bank.

 

‘The operating profile of Copernicus satisfies all criteria of ARP Venture's investment policy. Apart from the key criterion, i.e. product innovation, the project exerts a great social impact. The number of people suffering from lifestyle diseases has been growing steadily. Innovative technology implemented by Copernicus will improve the standard of living of many diabetics,’ says Piotr Krzyżewski, the Chairman of ARP Venture. ‘Significantly, Copernicus is a Polish company with its own commercialized patented innovative technology. Thanks to the funds lent by ARP Venture, the company will be able to enter new foreign markets, which has already been proved by new business relationships with Argentinian, Indian and Iranian firms,’ he adds.

 

Copernicus employs 70 people. Sales and production data have not been disclosed.

 

ARP Venture is a member of the Industrial Development Agency Capital Group, established to implement a new strategy aimed at promoting innovation in the Polish economy and fostering new technology transfer to the industry.

 

ARP Venture cooperates with SMEs operating in the industry sector, investing in innovative projects in the commercialization, series production and product expansion phase. Since its establishing last year, supporting Copernicus has been the second deal of the entity. Before, ARP Venture had granted a loan to a Cracow-based manufacturer of ecological building materials.

 

AK, mab