History

The history of the plant starts in 1945 when a pharmacist from Krakow, Mr Kazimierz Zagorski and the President of the Lublin Chamber of Apothecaries, Mr Witold Łobarzewski, MSc founded Lublin Pharmaceutical Plant "Orfa" Limited Partnership Company.

It was manufacturing a number of basic medications that were distributed mainly in Lublin and in the Lublin voivodship (province), and then in the whole country.

On January 8th, 1947, the Pharmaceutical Co-operative was registered in Lublin. It became a shareholder of "Orfa" and manufactured lead glance preparations, herbal ointments and a vast assortment of medications in ampoules.

On December 17th, 1949, the statue of a production co-op was accepted at the General Extraordinary Assembly which also decided on the company profile, i.e. production and sales of drugs, apothecary materials and preparations of medicinal herbs. The Co-op rented agricultural centre in Szczerkawa, where plantations of medicinal herbs were founded. The Co-op produced several types of syrups, tinctures, plant extracts, medicinal spirits and pharmacopeaian drugs.

In 1953 a simple but innovative production of pharmacopeaian liquids in 250 and 500 ml bottles such as: 0.9% solution of physiological salt, 5% glucose, and Ringer's liquid was launched. Then, production of five new infusion liquids for the water-electrolyte therapy started.

Co-operation with Prof. Jan Rogulski and Andrzej Wojtczak, MD from the II Internal Disease Clinic of the Medical Academy in Poznań brought about modernisation of recipes for some of the multi-component liquids and implementation of concentrates in ampoules to the production assortment.
On December 8th, 1957 the plant was renamed to Pharmaceutical Co-op "Inlek" in Lublin. The basic assortment of "Inlek" were infusion liquids, multi-component and pharmacopeaian solutions. In 1961 the co-operative pioneered in production of plastic disposable instruments for blood intake and transfusion. produced from plastics. With an increasing demand of the health service and growing production volume, there was a need to extend company production departments and storing areas leading to plant development.
Since 1964 the company has started manufacturing of fluids for peritoneal dialysis that were highly valued by the nephrologists. At the beginning of 1966 the company widened the range of products offered to blood collection and preservation containers - double containers (Combi A) and triple containers (Combi B). In 1972 production of new, disposable syringes from plastics with the capacity of 2, 5, 10, and 20 ml started.
In January 1974, the Pharmaceutical Co-op "Inlek" was taken over by the Association of Pharmaceutical Industry "Polfa", and as a result of transformation a new state-owned company Lublin Pharmaceutical Plant "Polfa" was founded.

The company continued and developed its former production profile. The plant was considerably modernised and extended. In March 1994 an innovative decision to work out a quality management system was taken. The project lasted for two years, and in the beginning of 1997 after audits carried out by the German certifying unit RW TÜV e.V., POLFA-LUBLIN, as the first pharmaceutical plant in Poland, received the ISO 9001 certificate.

In 1995, decision to build a new production unit - infusion liquid plant was taken. From the initial stage of design till the production start-up in the new plant, the investment was realised according to the international GMP standards. The new plant is one of the most modern objects of this kind in Poland.
In 1998, commercialisation of the company was initiated. It was transformed into a one-man company with the Treasury of State. In December 1998, POLFA-LUBLIN was entered into the trade register and since 01.01.1999 it functions as a joint-stock company.