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Apotex Inc. |
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Writing a prescription for success
When Dr. Barry Sherman founded Apotex Inc. in 1974, he started a chain of events that would eventually lead to Apotex becoming the largest privately owned pharmaceutical company in Canada and a world supplier for the international healthcare system. Today, the Apotex Group of Companies has established itself in the fields of generic, innovative and biotech medicines (the latter of which operates as a separate, publicly traded company called Cangene).
Strong medicine
Committed to supplying affordable, quality medicine around the world, Apotex Inc. currently employs 5,000 people across the country and generates revenues of $1.3 billion. The majority of sales is due to the company's ability to compete on the world market as a quality producer of generic medicine. To do so, it practices the very latest in manufacturing efficiencies, uses the latest in technologies and delivers the utmost in customer service.
"Our fill rate is 97 per cent," explains Elie Betito, Director of Public and Government Affairs for Apotex Inc., who describes the "fill rate" as the company's ability to fulfill customer orders on demand. "We're fully integrated, with our own in-house R&D group with close to 2000 scientific staff and the ability to research, develop and produce our own fine chemicals."
Apotex has its own building and construction division, to help keep up with its growing demand for more manufacturing space. It boasts around 3.4 million square feet in Canada, with a significant 2.5 million of that based in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) alone. That space is used to provide the 300 medicines - available in 4,000 different dosages - that Apotex supplies to its primary customer base of pharmacists. Canada accounts for some 60 per cent of sales, with the U.S. representing the majority of the remaining 40 per cent of international sales. Apotex produces medicines that are used to fill over 68 million Canadian prescriptions a year - the largest number of any pharmaceutical company in the country.
"In the 10 years between 1995 and 2005, we have invested $1.2 billion in new facilities in Ontario and the GTA," says Betito, who adds that the company plans to invest another $2 billion in R&D over the next 10 years.
Finding the right ingredients
Having been born and raised in Toronto, Dr. Sherman recognized very early on the many advantages that Toronto had to offer as a strong base from which to build his company. Today, Apotex is one of the largest employers in the city.
"Toronto is a great city," says Betito. "It attracts lots of people and offers great healthcare facilities." Toronto also offers other amenities, such as infrastructure. "From a location perspective, Toronto is an international city. It offers good links as far as transportation goes. And there's no question that Toronto provides us with a source for quality employees. It offers highly educated people in a very diverse multicultural environment."
That immigrant population is actively pursued and promoted at Apotex. The company caters to all nationalities.
"I personally think it's terrific," explains Betito, who adds that the company has employees from 82 different cultures in its work force and sponsors multi-cultural lunches. "It gives an interesting mix to the employee base and it gives us certain strengths that come from having so many different cultures. I think this mix of cultures has provided us with a very strong vision that has enabled us to become fairly successful."
The right anecdote
Another area in which Apotex relies on the city of Toronto is in its universities and post-secondary institutions.
"We benefit from the ability of the University of Toronto or other universities to provide some of the research and information that we rely upon," says Betito, adding that there is also the whole issue of attracting key personnel from other areas of the world. "For us, Toronto is a city that gives us the ability to entice people from other countries. We recently brought on some senior executives from Australia and England. We were able to do so because of the cultural amenities, along with the fact that Toronto is a safe city that has infrastructure and health care. Toronto allows us to continue to grow within the parameters of the GTA. We can ship to 115 different countries from here. There's a new airport. If you put it all together in one ball, you get a real positive feel about this city. People who move here have access to good schools, great art, restaurants and multiculturism. It's a great mix that shows people that this is the best place to live. That's what's great about this city. It's a city that can rival any other. I personally believe that Toronto is as good as it gets."
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