Since its first appearance in Pf in October 2001, the name Cambridge Laboratories has become far more familiar within the pharmaceutical industry. The company’s success over the past five years has enabled it to expand, to the extent that it is now aspiring to become one of Europe’s foremost privately owned pharmaceutical companies. Yet, despite its growth, Cambridge Laboratories has remained faithful to its core business principles and still retains the open, supportive culture of a small company.
Moving Forward
Over the last few years Cambridge Laboratories has become a dynamic and entrepreneurial pharmaceutical company with extensive product development and commercialisation expertise. The company has a proven track record in the development, global registration, marketing, sales and distribution of both innovative and well-established pharmaceutical products. This, combined with a strong product portfolio and an ability to forge lasting relationships with global partners, has helped to generate substantial sales growth over the last ten years. In addition to in-licensed opportunities, research and development is a significant and growing area of Cambridge Laboratories’ activities. The company now has an extremely experienced team overseeing the work of its external collaborators in drug development. There are substantial resources available for investment in the research and development of new products that are expected to form the bedrock of the organisation’s future success.
Sue Howles, recently appointed Area Project and Business Manager, has worked with Cambridge Laboratories for five years, and has seen it develop from the team of just six people that it was then. Pf asked Sue what changes she has seen in her time with the company:
“I think what is most important for me are the things that haven’t changed. Cambridge Laboratories has a very supportive, friendly culture, and I feel I have a good relationship with everyone in the company, even up to Mark Evans, the Chief Executive Officer. We have regular meetings with the CEO to keep us informed of any changes in the company, which is very reassuring as you really feel part of a team and can plan in the long-term. There is also a flexibility in how the company works, which allows employees to have an input into what’s happening, both in the short and long term. The attitude is that ‘nothing is impossible’ so you never feel there is a barrier or a limit on you. I think it is this culture that provides stability and is why many of my colleagues have stayed with the company for quite a few years.”
Working in Partnership
Maintaining an open and honest working relationship is of utmost importance to Cambridge Laboratories, both within the company and with its partners and its network of international distributors. Cambridge Laboratories have forged collaborations with many leading healthcare companies, including Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca and Sanofi Aventis Group. By focusing only on specialist pharmaceuticals in the secondary care sector, the company is able to offer its licensees the benefits of a single-minded approach, backed by flexibility in terms of contractual arrangements. Cambridge Laboratories is looking to continue to build its product portfolio by inlicensing, acquiring and developing products that leverage its core strengths.
Delivering Value
Throughout it’s development Cambridge Laboratories has remained faithful to its central principle; that everyone in the company is united in a common commitment to bring products to market that can make a difference to people’s lives. This unity of purpose is essential to the running of the company, from its Board of Directors, to its skilled management team through to the field force.
Area Business Manager, Alan Templeton, joined Cambridge Laboratories 18 months ago from a larger pharmaceutical company because he was attracted to this sense of unity, as well as the greater responsibility and autonomy that comes with working for a smaller company. We asked him how Cambridge Laboratories is different to his past experience of the industry:
“I heard about Cambridge Laboratories through a friend who had recently moved there. I was attracted to the idea of having a larger territory to myself, and their Key Account Management style of business. Cambridge Laboratories have allowed me more autonomy but also more flexibility in how I work. There really is an open culture and the sense that we are all one team. There is good communication within the company. We have frequent contact with our managers, and are encouraged to give honest feedback and share best practice with our colleagues.”
The focus for Cambridge Laboratories is now very firmly on the future and the opportunity to augment further targeted product acquisitions with its own internal development pipeline, bringing to market products that will help to fulfil previously unmet patient needs. If you are interested in becoming part of this promising future, contact the company’s HR department on 0191 296 9313 about opportunities with Cambridge Laboratories.
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