Interview: Ferring Pharma's president Michel Pettigrew on the company's science-driven growth

Standing out from the crowd is something that many pharma companies aspire to, but few actually achieve. But when it comes to being different, privately-owned Ferring Pharma is proud of its culture of enterprise driven by science, not profit. With record growth over the past decade, the 63-year-old company has big plans for the future. The Pharma Letter’s Sophie Flowers met Michel Pettigrew, president of the executive board and chief operating officer for Ferring Group, to find out what makes the company special.

A family-centered company

Ferring Pharma was formed against the backdrop of the Second World War, but has emerged as a global market leader in peptides and hormones. Scientific researcher Frederik Paulsen, who fled from Germany to Sweden in 1935, founded Nordiska Hormon Laboratoriet in 1950, which in 1954 changed its name to Ferring. Dr Paulsen and his research partner Eva – later his wife – became the first scientists to synthesize peptides by producing adrenocorticotrophin hormone (ACTH), or stress hormone, in their small laboratory in Stockholm. The work on hormones continued, making the company a pioneer in developing and selling pharmaceutical products based upon natural, pituitary-produced peptide hormones.