LABORATORIOS SAVAL

Laboratorios SAVAL began in Spain during the 1930s, to then continue in Chile at the end of that same decade. Throughout its history, based on quality work and service, SAVAL has managed to position itself as a leading healthcare company in Latin America.

Its origins go back to a small pharmaceutical company founded in Malaga, Spain, by Mr. Francisco Saval Morris, a pharmacist, At the outset, it was mostly dedicated to the field of ophthalmology, under the name of Laboratorios Nicolich.

By the end of the 1930s, the Saval family emigrated to Chile, where Laboratorios Nicolich was founded in 1938, eventually becoming Laboratorios SAVAL S.A.

The company rapidly expanded to other specialties, positioning itself as a leading company within the Chilean pharmaceutical industry, making great contributions in the infectious disease, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, cardiology, pulmonology, psychiatry, and immunology areas, among others.

Business representations became a growth driver for the company, since they substantially contributed to healthcare in Chile from the very beginning. As of the 1940s, SAVAL represented internationally renowned pharmaceutical companies like Burroughs Wellcome and Beecham Research, from England, which allowed it to introduce the first antibiotics such as sulfas and penicillins (1950). In 1968, ampicillin and semi-synthetic cloxacillin were added. In the subsequent years, new representations of important pharmaceutical companies were added, such as Syntex (1976), Jouvenal (1977), MSD (1990), Chiron (1997) and Bausch & Lomb (2001), among others. Thanks to these innovation drivers, SAVAL has achieved major milestones in the local industry, being one of the companies that has contributed the most to national healthcare.

SAVAL’s international presence begins in the 1990s, by exporting its products to the countries in the region, such as Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru, where the first affiliates were established, as well in Ecuador in collaboration with a renowned local distributor. In the early years of the new millennium, SAVAL started business in the Central American market, also in collaboration with a select group of distributors.

This rapid evolution has preserved the hallmark of the company: be able to provide a wide range of products and services based on its purpose of “always caring for people's health ensuring quality, accessibility, and efficiency”.

At the end of 2021, SAVAL started a modernization process and adjustment of the corporate structure and moving its headquarters to Spain, to return to the origins of the company.
 

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, the fast-track registration to facilitate importation and distribution in Chile of the Ad5-nCoV vaccine manufactured by the Chinese-Canadian company CanSino Biologics was approved, which allowed the company to significantly contribute to increase coronavirus vaccination coverage in the country.

In its strong leadership strategy, a modern pharmaceutical plant in Costa Rica is added to SAVAL’s operation at the beginning of 2023. This acquisition will allow to strengthen the presence of the company in the region, seeking to become one of the leading market players in Latin America and the Caribbean. Through this operation, more than 20 SAVAL products of the neuroscience, cardiology and ophthalmology portfolios will be shortly available in Costa Rica and other countries in the region.