Dr. Rodrigo and Alice Villanueva started a modest backyard business manufacturing high-quality medicines and pharmaceutical products at an affordable cost. One of the rooms in the house served as a mini-laboratory where drugs were mixed while the garage served as the warehouse for the packaging and finished products.
Rodrigo’s father Francisco founded the popular Commander Drug in the 1970s by selling medicines on a cart in Divisoria.
Today, Am-Europharma has flourished into one of the country’s leading manufacturers of ethical drugs and pharmaceutical products, both branded and generic.
Ritchie Villanueva, the eldest of the couple’s three children and now the company’s marketing manager, says the family’s life revolves around Am-Europharma.
“Even when we were growing, the family members were all somehow involved in the business as it was home-based then,” he says.
Ritchie, a graduate of the University of Sto. Tomas and Asian Institute of Management, and his two siblings have taken over the reins of the company but Rodrigo and Alice still guide them in the day-to-day operations and in making strategic decisions.
Romano, a graduate of the University of Toronto in Canada, handles Am-Europharma’s manufacturing while Rosella Marie Villanueva-Camua, who has a degree in corporate management from De La Salle University, is in charge of EuroCare Pharma Inc., a business unit for wholesale distribution of the company’s products.
Ritchie narrates that the company grew with the Villanuevas joining government-organized biddings to supply medicines to health centers until the company decided to concentrate on establishing a more profitable wholesale dealership base.
“Am-Europharma saw government regulations getting more stringent through the years so the company decided to upgrade its offices and manufacturing plant. We implement consistent quality control measures to make our products globally competitive,” says Ritchie.
The company has invested in machinery and quality testing equipment to ensure that it comes up with the best quality pharmaceutical products that include Eurivit, Foralivit, Gel-Malicid, Bonalet-Cee and Gluta White.
For information, call 807-1087 and 807-1094 or go to www.ameuropharma.com. Dinna Chan Vasquez
