Although the irruption of pandemic It was an unprecedented economic blow for a large part of the business fabric, some companies saw in this crisis a lucrative business opportunity and even propelled their balance sheets from modest billings to being measured as contractors with outstanding multinationals. EL PERIÓDICO has been able to find out, through a request to the transparency portal, the 25 companies that have received the most funds from the Generalitat since the covid-19 broke out and until May 2022.
Among all the audited companies, they signed a total of 11,142 contracts for an amount of 1,783.4 million euros. 43.5% of the funds have been dedicated to the acquisition of drugs, 16.5% to the adaptation to teleworking – with special prominence of Telephone– and another 16% to the purchase of sanitary material. The rest is linked to cleaning and disinfection, vehicle rental, energy supply -with nexus Y naturgy at the head – and the service of Post.
The classification of contractors is headed by the pharmaceutical Janssen (141.6 million euros), closely followed by Telephone (126.2 million euros) and with the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences in third place (110.8 million euros). And it is that 10 of the 25 companies have to do with this sector, which was in charge of offering antiretrovirals and immunosuppressants -among other types of drugs- to care for the most serious patients. As an example, a nurse consulted by this newspaper who worked in the Bellvitge Hospital ICU assures that although at first they injected chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine into the sick -used for certain types of malaria- as the pandemic progressed they began to dispense others like tocilizumab and remdesivir. All of them appear in the commands consulted.
a business opportunity
Companies that in the years prior to the outbreak of covid had been modest contractors of the Generalitat quickly climbed from 2020 to the highest positions in terms of awards. Barna Import Medical It is the perfect example of a company whose accounts have benefited from the coronavirus. This family business from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat run by Joan Pares Lucini and his two sons has been operating for 37 years dedicating himself to the sale of sanitary material with modest billings.
But, since the arrival of the pandemic, this family has added several zeros to their balances.
ces and has climbed to fourth place among the largest contractors with the Generalitat de Catalunya, sitting at the same table as Clece of Florentino Perez or the pharmaceutical multinational Novartis by multiplying your income by 40 by the Catalan administration. If in the last four years it had invoiced 2.3 million to this administration, after these two years it accumulates €94.8 million.
Fraikin Assets is the subsidiary of the French company of the same name, dedicated to car rental. Since 2020, a total of 48 contracts have been awarded for the leasing of vans for the DGAIA, logistics trucks, passenger cars and other transport vehicles. In the four years preceding the covid, 1.8 million euros entered from the Generalitat; Two years after the pandemic broke out, it accumulates 47.5 million euros. Another French subsidiary that has recently found a lucrative client in the Catalan administration is Sanofi-Aventis. With the sale of drugs, a total of 1,368 contracts have been awarded between 2020 and 2022, worth 46.9 million euros. Regarding the pre-pandemic period, it has multiplied by 3.6 its turnover for the Generalitat.
4 out of every 10 euros go to drugs
The main bastion of the Welfare State lies in the right to universal public healthcare and this right has a cost and consumes a significant part of the resources of the public coffers. Already before the pandemic, the Ministry of Health ‘ate’ a quarter of the budget of the Generalitat. And after the arrival of the coronavirus, health spending has risen. Four out of every 10 euros awarded by the Catalan administration to its main contractors were allocated to the purchase of pharmaceuticals. Among the 25 companies that sold the most money via services and products to the Generalitat, a total of 776.2 million euros went to drugs. Not surprisingly, the administration body that signed the most contracts was the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), registering 19.9% of the total.
Industry giants like Janssen either Pfizer, which have recently been known by ordinary citizens for producing vaccines against covid, were already counted before the pandemic as two of the multimillionaire contractors of the Generalitat. As an example, Janssen accumulated 66 million in contracts between 2016 and 2019 providing various medicines to hospitals such as the Barcelona Clinic, the Plató or infirmaries such as the one in the Can Brians prison, among many other services. However, after the arrival of the coronavirus, its turnover with the public treasury has skyrocketed.
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Other reference laboratories worldwide that also appear in the ‘top 25’ of companies that have received the most money from the Generalitat are the Franco-Swiss Roche and the British Glaxosmithkline either Viiv Healthcare. Another is Novartisa Swiss listed company that before the covid was in the withdrawal phase in Catalonia, transferring its plants in Barberà del Vallès and El Masnou and that in the last two years has entered 94.1 million euros.
Epis, masks, biohazard gowns… The pandemic has required special coatings and companies have made a business out of it. Among the 25 main contractors of the last two years, the Generalitat has allocated 287 million euros specifically to the purchase of medical supplies. Where well-known and dominant players in the sector have intervened, such as Medtronic, Siemens Healthcare either Philipsas well as rising and local values, such as the aforementioned Barna Importeither I-Tech Holdinga venture capital company, which had never before tendered with the Generalitat and which, just 15 days after the first state of alarm was decreed, signed four contracts worth 50.9 million euros to bring six million masks from China, two million medical gowns and half a million biohazard suits.