Pharmaceutical Technologist - July 2008 - (Page 25)

Q&A (Germany) and the product portfolio from Shire (UK) and establish direct commercial presence in five new European countries. Many family owned companies are very reluctant or completely unwilling to give up their 100% ownership, but Almirall has recognized that growing in size would allow us to expand and invest more in key areas such as internationalization and R&D. The third key factor that has contributed to Almirall’s success is its very committed professional team. Almirall has 11 affiliates throughout Europe and Latin America. Does the company have any immediate plans to expand into the US or Asia? Internationalization is one of the company’s strategic objectives. Almirall aims to consolidate itself in countries where it has its own affiliates (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK, apart from Spain). Almirall’s medicines are present in more than 70 countries, including the US and Japan, through its own affiliates or commercialization agreements for its products. In fact, we are in the US with our antimigriane almotriptan — the first Spanish R&D drug to receive FDA approval in 2001 and in Canada in 2003. We also have plans for aclidinium bromide in the US via a partnership with Forest Laboratories (NY, USA). Regarding Asia, our antihistamine ebastine is distributed in Japan, Korea and China, among other countries. How do you see the pharma industry developing in Spain during the next 20 years and how will Almirall respond to this? Our main objective in Spain is to maintain our current position and avoid losing ground, which is still very important for us. However, Almirall is already very big in Spain. There are so many opportunities for acquisitions and growth abroad, and it does not make much business sense to focus our efforts only on the Spanish market now that we are succeeding in our internationalization process. PT Per-Olof A ndersson References 1. World Health Organization 2007. www.who.int/respiratory/copd/burden/en/ index.html 2. World Health Organization, Factsheet 315, November 2006. 3. Genuair is a registered trademark of Laboratorios Almirall, S.A. Genuair is the proposed registered trademark for the MDPI and is pending regulatory approval. R&D projects and pipeline Almirall is one of the 70 pharmaceutical laboratories with the highest turnover in the world. In Europe, it is ranked the 36th leading pharma company. Internationalization is one of the company’s strategic objectives and it aims to consolidate itself in countries where it has its own affiliates. The company has products such as almotriptan, the first Spanish drug approved by FDA; the antihistamine ebastine, which is marketed in many countries; and aceclofenac, which was the first drug researched and developed in Spain to be introduced to the UK. The company boasts a solid R&D team, a new R&D centre in Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona, Spain) and, according to Almirall, an excellent pipeline — the principal component of which is aclidinium bromide, its proprietary R&D compound in Phase III for the treatment of COPD. Almirall’s future will be linked to the success of aclidinium bromide. Getting this product on the market will represent major success for the company’s development and give it the opportunity to grow further in the coming years. Last year, Almirall made acquisitions in the derma arena: Hermal and a product portfolio from Shire. These operations have enabled the company to establish direct commercial presence in five new European countries reinforcing its competitiveness. In respiratory, as in its other areas of therapeutic focus, the company is committed to identifying new mechanisms of action implicated in a specific disease target, with the overall aim of designing and developing powerful, selective and safe medicines. The company has a number of early stage products in its respiratory pipeline including novel molecules in development for COPD and/or asthma. In 2007, two new projects for rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis also entered the development phase. Moreover, Almirall recently announced promising results with a new compound, LAS100977, for the treatment of asthma and COPD. The compound has successfully completed a daily single dose trial that demonstrated 24-hour efficacy. The company also has several molecules under development in dermatology, three of which are in Phase III. www.ptemagazine.com 25 http://www.who.int/respiratory/copd/burden/en/index.html http://www.ptemagazine.com

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Pharmaceutical Technologist - July 2008

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