Recipharm is one of Europe’s leading pharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMO). The company was founded in Sweden in 1995 and has since then expanded into nine manufacturing units across Europe. It is increasingly common for pharmaceutical companies to contact an external partner early in the development phase. Recipharm can assist in all stages from product development to the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. Contacting Recipharm will often result in a successful cost-cutting approach where time-to-market is significantly reduced.
Swedish pharmaceutical companies, both large and small, are widely known as being at the forefront of development. With an extensive portfolio of basic research at hand, these companies are successful in creating new and often ground-breaking medical drugs – but there seems to be a gap between development and commercialisation stages where successful projects are sold once they are ready for commercialisation.
This means that Swedish innovations may end up overseas despite the fact that Swedish companies possess the knowledge and skills required to further develop and manufacture the products. Recipharm can help to address the problem by offering contract development and manufacturing services that ensures good profits on a global basis.
Expanding in development services
The Recipharm contract manufacturing division offers several hundred different products in a variety of dosage forms including tablets, capsules, granules oral liquids, semi solids and steriles ,. In pharmaceutical development, Recipharm has built up an extensive offer of services ranging from straight forward clinical supply through to more complex product development and formulation.
A growing number of pharmaceutical companies choose to employ subcontractors such as Recipharm in all phases of the development process. This has made it possible for Recipharm to expand in development services. At the end of 2012 the company announced a strategic investment to expand capacity in analytical services and stability studies at the facility in Solna, near Stockholm.
“This investment secures our position as one of Europe’s prime development partners to pharmaceutical companies, whether they require a comprehensive range of services from development to manufacture or just targeted efforts in certain aspects of the development chain. The expansion enables us to take on a larger number of complex development projects in parallel with our day-to-day manufacturing activities”, says Dr. Torkel Gren from the Development Services part of Recipharm in Solna.
The investment is also an effort to collect all development services under the same roof and thus creating synergy between projects.
Grows in line with the market
Recipharm was established by Lars Backsell and Thomas Eldered, both are still highly involved in the company’s daily activities as Chairman and CEO respectively. In less than 20 years, Recipharm has grown from a small contract manufacturing and development house with a handful of dedicated employees to an international corporation employing around 1700 people. This impressive expansion is a result of both organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
Torkel Gren explains that a large portion of the annual turnover is re-invested in the facilities and processes in order to ensure that the best possible equipment and services are always available to Recipharm’s clients. “Our latest investment manifests our ambition to grow in line with the market. We have identified an increase in the demand for our development services, but at the same time there are more companies offering this type of services today. We rely on our well-established reputation as we continue to invest in better equipment, technology and services to support our clients”.
