Ambition, agility and doing what’s best for patients: the components of Accord’s incredible success

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Accord Healthcare might not be as well-known as certain preeminent pharma corporations in the UK and Europe, but you would struggle to find any company making a greater contribution to the production and supply of medicines across the continent.

Furthermore, finding a more agile drugmaker than Accord would be difficult—a factor that has been key to the company’s rapid rise and explains the extent of Accord’s ambitions for further growth.

A fully-owned subsidiary of Intas Pharmaceuticals, Accord EMENA was founded by India’s Chudgar family in 2008 as the group’s international arm. The family own 84%, with the remaining 16% held by Temasek Holdings, ChrysCapital and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Oncology leader

Paul Tredwell (pictured, above), executive vice president, reeled off just a few of the facts and stats that show the scale of Accord’s growth so far.

“When we look at our strengths, we’re an oncology leader,” he told The Pharma Letter. “We supply around 30% of all generic oncology injectables for Europe. On last look, we’re the biggest supplier of oncology molecules into Europe. That includes about 54 products that we have in that space, and another 20 that we’re launching.

“On top of that, we also produce biosimilars. We have four biosimilars in the European market, of which we are the biggest supplier for one. Globally, we have more than 15 in India, and in the USA we’ll be launching shortly.

“The strength of the company is its vertical integration, and I include R&D in that, and then we’ve got manufacturing, regulatory, commercial and medical.”

Manufacturing accounts for approximately 50% of Accord’s 2100 workforce. The company does everything through from R&D, from more simple solid oral dose all the way through to complex biologics. This includes not only generics and biosimilars, but innovative products as well, going right to the commercial front end.

“We’re one of the few companies in our space, that can develop products from initial research through its clinical phases , and then commercialize quickly,” Mr Tredwell added.

Three pillars

There are three main pillars of the business, all of which have been extremely successful and encompass around 14,000 marketing authorizations. As well as generic oncology injectables supplied to hospitals, there are retail generics found in pharmacies. In the latter space, Accord is a real giant — the company is one of biggest suppliers by volume of pharmaceuticals to the UK, providing around 11% of the NHS drugs – of which around 85% are made in the UK.

The final pillar is specialty brands. This includes biosimilars and new chemical entities (NCEs).

As well as providing for patients, Accord contributes significantly to the economy and jobs market. In the UK, the company’s site in Barnstaple, Devon — where more than five billion tablets and capsules are manufactured every year for the UK NHS —and is one of the biggest pharma employer in England’s South West.

Accord is also making new investments in its manufacturing site near Newcastle and boasts the UK’s largest pharma distribution center in Oxfordshire, which is fully automated as part of the firm’s drive to maximize efficiency and patient access.

“Driving access to medicines and adding value is something that we stand for as a company,” Mr Tredwell explained. “The more efficient we get, the better we can pass that on to healthcare systems.”

A new headquarters for the Europe, Middle East, and North Africa (EMENA) region is being prepared near Heathrow airport and, outside the UK, Accord has also bought and rapidly developed a site in Greece that acts as a test and release hub for Europe, as well as close to market packing, warehousing and distribution. The latter was built to provide post-pandemic resilience within Europe, complimenting the firm’s UK and Indian operations. Having four sites in India helps to balance out costs.

“I think you need a balance of offshore and onshore,” Mr Tredwell said. “If you put everything in Europe or the USA, you’re going to break the healthcare system because they won’t be able to afford it. Our site in Greece alleviates supply issues and offers resilience within healthcare systems in Europe.”

Commitment to improve medicines

Having agility across the organization has been crucial to Accord’s success, especially in the specialty brands business, where foreseeing evolution and seizing opportunities with the right products has led the division to contribute 30% of group revenues, despite it only being started in 2015.

Mr Tredwell said: “We all take a lot of stock in the tagline of the company, which is “we make it better.” That goes into everything, whether it’s our products, how we interact—but the final point is the patient.

“We want to offer medicines which improve what’s in the marketplace at the moment. For example, our autoinjectors, for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, are designed specifically for patients with dexterity challenges. With our market leading biosimilar, we went over and above the innovator and were the first in the world to launch an autoinjector, one year post our first PFS launch, which supported patients self-administration during COVID. On other biosimilars we have the biggest range of strengths, again over and above the innovator, supporting patients across diverse age ranges and indications.

“Our attitude towards ‘We Make it Better’ also challenges the perceptions of market formation on certain oncology products. In one instance, we were the sixth biosimilar to market, but are now challenging for the leading position highlighting the effectiveness of the ideology.

“When we do these projects, we speak to clinicians, and we work with patient groups to understand what the patients’ needs are. Our aim is always to go the extra mile to make it better for the patient, even if the product’s been around for 10 years.”

Agility runs through the company, Just six months after signing a deal to commercialize an NCE with Myovant Sciences, Accord was promoting the brand at an international congress with a full marketing campaign, medical support and the product already manufactured and packed in Accord packaging, available for prescription.

“That is relatively unheard of,” Mr Tredwell said.

A perfect partner

“When you supply 30% of the market in chemotherapy injectables, when you have the scale and a commercial front-end of 1,000 people with 400 salespeople, for a partner signing a deal with you, knowing you have that agility to take their product into the European market, with full market access capability, it gives partners great confidence.

“Since then, we’ve had further partners coming on board. They want to use our platform, they know the speed that we bring products to market, and also the credibility we have in the market with healthcare professionals and our ‘we make it better’ concept that we always try to push the envelope on, doing things to the best patient potential.”

A commitment to prostate cancer and entering the lung therapy area are part of Accord’s upcoming launches, as are two biosimilars, and more than 20 generic INNs. There will be more products from the company’s in-house liposomal platform, which has already brought two significant follow-on brands to market.

“That’s just within the next 12 months in terms of the plans that we have,” Mr Tredwell said. “Agility has to be part of our DNA to get through full NCE launches that need National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommendation, generic launches, biosimilar launches — and we have a very structured approach to this within our franchises.”

Built for growth

A further Accord ambition — and one frequently achieved — is to be the market leader with many of its products.

It is no wonder that, as impressive as Accord’s current position is — it is a top 10 generics and biosimilar company, a leading UK pharma firm and manufacturer and one of Europe’s largest hospital suppliers by volume — its aspirations for future growth are even bolder.

“Our core care is oncology, autoimmune, critical care and CNS, at this stage. It’s a franchise structure that we can roll out, so the structure’s set and we continually expand on that basis, and that will drive incredible growth.”

Overall, Accord’s five-year ambition for EMENA is to double its current top line of almost $1 billion, and more than triple the bottom line.

“It’s taken us 16 years to get to where we are now,” Mr Tredwell said. “So that growth ambition is not insignificant, and we can do that with the assets we currently have, without inorganic growth, which we are always looking for.”