In addition to providing contract manufacturing services, Stockholm, Sweden-based APL makes extemporaneous drugs, which are smaller batches of drugs produced in a variety of dosage forms in response to patient prescriptions or specific needs.
The ability to make these ‘specials’ requires flexibility and technical expertise that also benefits APL’s contracting business according to life sciences marketing director, Michael Brobjer, who spoke with Outsorcing-pharma.com when we visited the firm last week.
“We get more than 600 orders [for extemporaneous products] per day…this direct contact with healthcare and how patients are treated within the hospital gives us understanding of the types of preparations used in hospitals and the kind of convenience that is needed.”
Making extemporaneous also requires that APL keeps up to date on developments in dosage forms by working with the Swedish MPA and interacting directly with scientists according to Brobjer, which he said has obvious benefits for the firm’s CMO business.
This was echoed by APL CEO Eva Sjokvist Saers, who told Outsourcing-pharma.com that feeding information from the specials unit is an important part of the firm’s strategy and particularly its interaction with customer’s R&D teams.
“A lot of the knowledge we acquire in the life science business area we can use in the healthcare business and vice versa,” Sjokvist Saers said, adding that as a state owned firm APL is part of Sweden’s healthcare system.
“The daily conversations and discussions we have with the MPA regarding different products that are on the market… are of great use to customers in the life science business. So it is definitely a synergy because we are using the same resources for development, analytical capabilities, manufacturing and tech transfer.”