AMRI to focus on scale and capabilities of API biz following robust 2013
For 2013, Albany Molecular Research Inc (AMRI) announced contract sales of $210m (€153m) - up 11% on the year prior – split between a 14% growth in large scale manufacturing (which represents almost two thirds of its business) and a 5% growth in Discovery Services and Development revenue.
The firm plans to build on this momentum according to CEO William Marth who said AMRI intends to “grow beyond industry rate” by offering clients the opportunity to “transition from discovering development stage to API and finish drug product,” during a call to discuss the results last week.
On the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) front, the company has recently upgraded its Aurangabad, India facility and Marth said the firm was looking to expand its API capabilities further across the network.
“API is the $14bn addressable market consisting of brand generic and OTC,” he told stakeholders. “Today AMRI primarily services the brand market, but there is no reason we cannot expand it to these other growth markets as well. We intend to leverage our capabilities in Rensselaer [US], Holywell [UK] and Aurangabad to capture greater market share.”
The APIs for Shire’s depression treatment Vyvanse, Medivation’s prostate cancer drug Xtandi and Takeda’s anti-diabetic drug Alogliptin are three of the branded contracts AMRI currently serves, but the firm hopes to have a greater presence in the generic space, which Marth estimated to represent 80% of the dispensing in the US.
“People look at the opportunity here in the market and they think, many of the companies like the Tevas and the Mylans of the world who are vertically integrated make everything themselves but they can't, right?," he said.
“They certainly don’t have the capability, they can make a lot of their own API, but they can't make it all. And so that gives opportunities if you have the right portfolio and that’s the key, choosing the right product.”
Scale and Capabilities
Marth continued: “We see potential API expansion on two fronts, the scale and capabilities.”
Regarding scale, Marth said AMRI has capacity available still at the Holywell plant for products to be shifted from its New York state flagship API facility at Rensselaer, whilst capacity at Aurangabad would open up following US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, expected later this year. The Indian site achieved approval from Indian regulators to export APIs to Europe last year.
As for capabilities, the firm is looking to expand into steroids and the peptide side of toxic controlled substances, as well as more complex molecules. “Those are all areas that are smaller but more profitable niches and that’s where we would put our API business across the API network.”
