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pure contract manufacturing organization (CMO) to
establishing its own R&D and selling its own developed products. “Now we are a fully-fledged CDMO. We offer our partners a full range of production of tablets and capsules at an internationally GMP approved site and we also offer our own range of in-house developed generic products, most of them coming off patent in the coming few years,” Aðalsteinsson says. The majority of the team behind Coripharma have previously worked at Actavis, being part of a journey where they have grown and evolved with a company growing from a small local entity to be a part of a multi-national organization. “We aim to take the positive learnings, such as excellence in quality and customer service, while avoiding the pitfalls of the big top-heavy corporate beasts that companies can grow into if left unchecked,” says Aðalsteinsson. “The contract manufacturing market is quite competitive today and to gain an advantage you need to focus on what you are good at,” continues Aðalsteinsson. “Our strength lies in our ability to offer high customer service, quick turnaround times and good cost of goods for the medium sized products. We are not trying to compete with companies offering billions of tablets but instead to offer production and packaging to clients that need flexibility and quality.” Aðalsteinsson states that among the advantages of being located in Iceland is access to great employees. “We have been extremely fortunate in the fact that the pool of ex-Actavis workers has been deep enough to sustain our needs well, and people really have jumped at the opportunity to join our company on this journey.” Another advantage, he says, is the green energy they utilize for their operations. “Iceland is also located very strategically, close to both Europe and America, and being inside the European Economic Area makes us a natural EU-GMP site.” 88 NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE “Official support is very limited,” he continues, “But the local investment environment in Iceland has been very receptive of our project and funding the company has gone very well. All commercialization is done the “old school” way – knocking on doors – beginning with those we knew from previous jobs and cold-calling. Participating in trade events has also generated good results.” “The long-term plans for Coripharma are to bring the R&D projects to market and build a future on their own in-house developed products, while continuing to build a strong CMO operation which will serve as an important revenue generator,” says Aðalsteinsson. “We will also aim to work closely with selected development partners in order to maximize our portfolio reach. Going forward we are not planning to sell under our own brand directly to the market, but rather out-license our products to international customers.” As a final piece of advice to other Nordic life science entrepreneurs-to-be out there, Aðalsteinsson recommends to nurture your network and believe in your team! NLS Coripharma has been fortunate in the fact that the pool of ex-Actavis workers has been deep enough to sustain their needs well