Interview: Clinigen’s CEO Peter George on the company’s record growth

If there is one pharma company bucking the trend of shaky financial results it is the Clinigen Group. The UK-based specialty pharma company’s maiden results reported a 49% increase in group revenue over the previous period and since its IPO last year. The Pharma Letter’s Sophie Flowers went to meet chief executive Peter George to find out what the company is doing right.

Compared to most pharma companies Clinigen has an unusual business model, but it seems to be working perfectly for chief executive Peter George. The former Penn Pharma CEO took the reins in June 2010 when the merger of two smaller businesses formed the Clinigen Group (LSE: CLIN), headquartered in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. It combined Keats Healthcare, now Clinigen Clinical Trials Supply (CTS), and Clinigen Healthcare, a supplier of unlicensed medicines largely into the UK with a turnover of about £20 million ($32.2 million), which is now Clinigen GAP, the group’s Global Access Programs division. Together with Clinigen Pharma, formed in 2010 and now called Clinigen Specialty Pharmaceuticals (SP), it formed the Clinigen Group comprising of three distinct but complementary divisions of the company. The catalyst for this merger was the antiviral Foscavir (foscarnet sodium), acquired from AstraZeneca in 2010. It became the model for a successful transaction; having earned £4.5 million a year with AstraZeneca, in Clinigen’s hands it has become their lead product, growing more than five-fold over the last three years.

The company’s growth can only be described as supersonic, with a 49% increase in sales and 30% increase in underlying EBITDA helped by all three business operations and GAP alone growing six fold in the last year. Mr George explained that the original aim was to have £75 million turnover by June 2014, but the company reached that milestone in just 18 months. In 2011 Clinigen was recognized as the fasting-growing private company in the UK by the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100, thanks to an exceptional three-year sales growth. These results generated a lot of private equity interest but the decision was taken instead to do an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in September 2012. The IPO valued the company at £135 million and raised £50 million, including £10 million for the Group to drive further product acquisition.