Life Sciences

Veranova showcases rebranding efforts and API management service suite at CPHI

CPHI marked the first major industry event in which Veranova, formerly known as Johnson Matthey Health, could assess the impact of the company rebrand amongst customers, prospects, and industry peers.

The change in name, which happened in June this year, coincided with its launch as an independent company following the acquisition by Altaris Capital Partners, LLC from Johnson Matthey PLC.

“The commentary with no exceptions so far has been that the market is quite impressed,” said Don LaFerle, Commercial Director at Veranova. “People like the name, the brand, the colours, and the presentation.

The Veranova employees are proud to be here and finally exhibit at CPHI.”

Veranova, a global contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) and commercial manufacturer focused on complex Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), has had an eventful few years, in which its rebrand followed a period of industry upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘A mobilization to help’

We manufacture and develop APIs that are used across a wide range of therapeutic areas from anti-cancer and pain medications to psychiatric disorders,” said LaFerle.

“During the pandemic, hospitals were occupied with COVID patients, so unless you had an emergency, you had to wait for elective surgery.

“And so during that time, for products like codeine, there was a slight lull in activity. But this year it’s really picked up and it seems like the backlog of those surgeries are happening now.

“In general, during the pandemic, I think there was much more of a mutual mobilisation to help, be it the vaccine makers or the therapeutic anti-viral makers, to pitch in and help out where we could.

“I think it really did bond people together because we understood our ‘why’ a little better, when making active ingredients. The active ingredients we make are provided to our customers and we collectively make a positive and meaningful impact in people’s lives.”

Veranova specializes in addressing the multitude of issues that arise in the evolving development and manufacturing landscape for specialist and complex APIs.

These include linkers for Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and as well as highly potent molecules and controlled substances.

Veranova is also experienced in addressing challenging purifications with, for example, preparative to production scale chromatography, and issues of challenging isolations with the Pennsylvania-based firm’s expertise in cocrystal formation and crystallisation development.

Drug development landscape

As the industry gets back to some semblance of normal, LaFerle outlines some of the areas of drug development that are finding favour amongst companies in the space.

“We are looking at some activity within the attention deficit disorder space where Veranova is well-positioned for both mature and new products.

“There are other associated medicines where the generic market will open soon. So, there’s been a lot of activity in preparation for the generic launches of some of these molecules.

Liz Edmond, Veranova’s Marketing Communications Manager added that on the originator side there’s a move towards more complex molecules.

When thinking about oncology drugs for example, there is an increasing demand for novel modalities, such as ADCs, that are highly specialised.”

“There is a move towards more targeted drug therapies, essentially tailoring medicine to the individual.”