John Dawson, Founder and CEO, Alliance Pharma
|
In order to achieve such a position, the company has undergone a restructuring that included the up-skilling of its personnel,
which was made possible due to the availability of pharmaceutical experts that had recently been laid off by other companies.
Detailing Martindale's strategy, de Souza sees "new product development as a key aspect to ensure the continued growth of
the company well into the future, but to maintain current growth we have had to develop a very active business development
culture. We have been able to better gauge demand by establishing preferred partnership status with major retail pharmacy
estates so that when a patient walks into one of those pharmacies with a prescription for a special, then that order will
directly come to us. Innovation and customer-centric service improvements help underpin our status as the partner of choice
for many pharmacies." This service-oriented approach includes delivering orders within 24 hours of them being placed and launching
a new online platform from which a pharmacist can directly make orders. With steady growth and success in the UK the company
is now looking to leverage its business model beyond its borders. "As a company, we already know how to solve some of the
problems in the UK, so we are looking to transfer that knowledge to other European markets with similar needs and conditions.
In 2010 Martindale only had 4% of its turnover coming from international markets. Within 12 months we have taken that up to
10%, and my goal is to reach over 20% within three years."
Richard de Souza, CEO, Martindale Pharma
|
In similar fashion, Alliance Pharma was created in 1996 when its founder perceived the outsourcing trend that was taking hold
of the global pharmaceutical industry. Founder and chief executive officer John Dawson took advantage of the opportunity to
create a company that specializes in marketing and distributing niche products. Dawson describes, "Having seen the splintering
of R&D, with small biotech boutiques being set up as spinoffs of bigger pharmaceutical corporations ... I realized these companies
would need partners to do their marketing and distribution in the future. Our perception as a growing specialty pharmaceutical
company is to exploit opportunities that do not come from our own research and development, which can relate to both mature
as well as innovative products that need launching. We have seen an increasing demand for our products even in the areas that
we do not promote. Many of our products are so well established that it does not even make economic sense to promote all of
them. For example, we have seen growth in non-promoted products purely for demographic reasons such as a growing or aging
population." Despite Alliance's impressive performance over the past few years, such as growth of 44% in 2009, Dawson cautions
that "it is crucial, however, to keep your two feet on the ground."
Scott Maguire, CEO, Xenetic Biosciences
|
Swiss biologics specialist Lonza is also taking advantage of the current situation of the pharmaceutical industry by positioning
itself as an indispensable partner in product development and manufacturing. In 1996 the company acquired Celltech Biologics
based in Slough, UK, which today has become Lonza's global center of excellence for mammalian cell cultures and is currently
undergoing a £16 million ($25.3 million) renovation and expansion. "The investment will create a flexible operational infrastructure
utilizing state-of-the-art equipment and technologies. The scope includes new purification and fermentation suites, new process
development laboratories, a new GMP warehouse, and new office facilities," explains Gordon Bates, head of operations of Lonza
UK. He adds, "Within the context of a growing biologics sector, where many large pharmas have publicly stated that they expect
20% to 50% of new molecules to be biologics over the coming years, Lonza's UK operations, which are solely focused around
mammalian cell culture, are well positioned to support this projected growth. The UK also retains a strong position in scientific
education and academic research that continues to create a great resource base and talent pool. Geographically speaking, Lonza
Slough is also well positioned to support a global customer base given we are only 20 minutes away from Heathrow Airport.
Overall, I think this is a very exciting time for the biotech sector in the UK at the moment."
Gordon Bates, Head of Operations & Site Manager, Lonza UK
|
The enthusiasm for UK biotech is reflected in the collaborations that pharmaceutical companies are forging with small startups
and academic groups. Particularly now that the industry is struggling to maintain its R&D productivity, new models of research
have been emerging out of scientific centers of excellence such as the UK. "While we believe that close partnerships with
academic institutions globally are important, the availability of a wide range of collaboration models and flexibility over
intellectual property rights are factors that continue to make the UK academic sector an integral part of our innovation efforts,"
says Bates. Deepak Khanna, MSD's managing director, adds, "The UK will continue to have academic partnerships because of the
high-quality scientists and the high-quality work force skills that exist here, but I think we are going to see more of these
collaborations and partnerships earlier on. This is part of the changing R&D model versus the traditional bricks-and-mortar
R&D facilities."
|
PharmExec Blog
Follow Us
RSS
Bookstore
