‘Snip’ tops cold and flu sales in Cyprus

A LOCALLY manufactured drug is probably the island’s top selling cold and flu remedy, the company which makes it said yesterday. Medochemie Ltd, an international generic pharmaceutical manufacturer headquartered in Cyprus, manufactures the popular cold and flu medication Snip. First launched in the 80s the drug has since boomed in sales and now tops the company’s sales list. Containing three generic ingredients, paracetamol, pseudoephedrine and chlorpheniramine maleate, Snip is widely prescribed to relieve the symptoms of cold and flu. “It is the only medication of its kind available in Cyprus,” said Nicos Christides, head of Cyprus sales at Medochemie. Chrisitides said the drug was so effective that it could even relieve the symptoms of H1N1. “H1N1 is a flu with common flu symptoms,” he explained. Nevertheless Snip was not a treatment, he added. “Colds and flu are caused by viruses and so there is no treatment. This is just an effective remedy to relieve symptoms,” he said. Christides said the medication was currently sold in 20 overseas countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Far East. He said interest had recently been shown in purchasing the product by the Ukraine, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. “Consumers in Finland also acquired the drug through friends in Cyprus. They had tried it somewhere and when they couldn’t find it in Finland they contacted friends who purchased it for them and sent it over,” he said. Medochemie Ltd manufactures a wide range of oral solid dosage forms, oral solutions, powder and solutions for injection, dry powders for inhalation, and creams, ointments and suppositories in nine of its manufacturing facilities. It is a privately owned company and was founded in 1976 by Dr Andreas Pittas with eight of its nine facilities in Limassol and one in the Netherlands. It is also a member of EGA, the European Generic Medicines Association. Medochemie employs 1,250 people, including 600 in Cyprus and 650 abroad. Sixty per cent of its personnel are scientists. The company has local offices in 19 countries and was granted 13 awards from the government of Cyprus and three from the European Union for outstanding business performance. It produces a wide range of products with 3,800 marketing authorisations and 630 different product combinations which can be divided into more than 10 therapeutic categories giving more than 150 million people the opportunity to be treated with their products. The company’s philosophy has always been and to this day remains: “To provide every human being around the globe with quality and affordable drug treatment.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.