Archimedes: A Thriving Speciality Pharma
April 2008
Archimedes: A Thriving Speciality Pharma
In this new interview, Fintan Walton talks to Richard de Souza, CEO of Archimedes Pharma.
Archimedes: A Thriving Speciality Pharma
In this new interview, Fintan Walton talks to Richard de Souza, CEO of Archimedes Pharma. Richard describes how Archimedes' strategy has evolved over the 18 months since his last appearance on PharmaTelevision. He discusses the strategic acquisitions the company has undertaken to establish itself, and summarises the company's presence within the major European markets. An interesting conversation develops about the challenges facing speciality pharma in Europe, followed by Richard's outline of Archimedes' current plans for commercialising their products in the US. The two conclude the interview with a discussion of the de-risking of Archimedes' development strategy, how this was applied to its lead product, NasalFent®, and the company's plans for the coming 12 months.
Richard de Souza
Richard de Souza is CEO of Archimedes Pharma, a speciality pharmaceutical company founded in December 2004 and based in Reading, UK. Before co-founding Archimedes with two other former Shire Pharmaceuticals Group executives, he served for 4 years as Director, International at Shire, where he was responsible for significant growth of the Pharma Business in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and of the Diagnostics and Biologicals Businesses globally. Before that, from 1999, Richard was at Warner-Lambert as President, Europe and International; he left Warner-Lambert after its merger with Pfizer in 2000, to go to Shire. Richard is a pharmacist who started his career at SmithKline Beecham in manufacturing, and then moved on through business development and marketing roles into general management; in 1995 he was appointed Chairman, Europe Pharma at SmithKline Beecham.
Archimedes Pharma
Archimedes is a European speciality pharmaceutical company with an established commercial organisation in the UK, France and Germany and a portfolio of products marketed to specialist prescribers. Archimedes’ products include Gliadel, for high grade glioma; Zomorph, an oral sustained release morphine product for cancer pain; Nozinan, a neuroleptic with anti-emetic properties, particularly suited to treat nausea and vomiting in advanced cancer patients; and Pabrinex, a high potency formulation of vitamins B and C for alcoholics experiencing acute withdrawal. Archimedes’ strategy is to grow its commercial presence organically and through the acquisition of pharmaceutical companies or marketed brands in Europe and through partnering or licensing of European rights to new specialist prescribed products. In parallel, Archimedes is developing a robust pipeline of innovative near term products to support its commercial organisation. Its lead product, NasalFent®, intranasal fentanyl for rapid relief of breakthrough cancer pain, has successfully completed Phase II clinical trials and could be ready for launch in 2009. To provide further impetus and sales growth for the company in the medium term, Archimedes has an established development organisation with proprietary technologies for nasal drug delivery and a number of products in development.
