07 May 2010
UK-BASED SCM Pharma has appointed a new managing director in a bid to accelerate the company’s growth.
Dianne Sharp joins the contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) after 10 years at Mechetronics, while former MD Shirley Dann will remain a director and once again head-up the firm’s expanding business development team.
The sterile fill/finish specialist grew by over 40% last year after picking up around 10 new clients but with more new projects on the horizon and increased demand for its commercial product supply service, the company has recognised the need to restructure and bolster both its business development and technical groups.
Dianne has been tasked with managing SCM Pharma’s development into new territories, increasing its service offerings and optimising the manufacturer’s internal processes and procedures.
The former managing director and board member at electronics firm Mechetronics brings with her a wealth of finance, operations and strategic experience having set-up its international sites and managed the company’s numerous manufacturing facilities.
Fiona Cruickshank, co-owner and director at SCM Pharma, said: “We are delighted to have Dianne on board to help us expand the company and refine the operational side of the business to ensure we deliver every project to deadline.
“She has an excellent track record of building and running efficient high-growth businesses so naturally we have very high hopes for her at SCM Pharma.”
Regarding the change of role for Shirley, Fiona added: “Shirley has been an invaluable member of the board of directors for over five years and has done a fantastic job recently in leading and growing the business as MD through a challenging economic period.
“Given she has such exceptional technical and commercial experience, it makes sense for us to fully utilise her skill-set in line with the company’s current and future needs. With this in mind, Shirley will be primarily concentrating on overseeing business development and making sure we are engaging with the kind of clients that require a fast-tracked world-class contract manufacturing service,” added Fiona.
As part of the restructuring, SCM Pharma has consolidated its current operations team in a bid to bolster its technical offering. As a result, the technical group has almost doubled to nine staff, around 20% of the total SCM Pharma workforce.
The expanded technical team will be tasked with helping other departments increase overall efficiency and ensure the delivery of projects against deadline. The move also follows a client research project that identified an increasing requirement for greater depth and breadth of technical knowledge from CMOs amongst the company’s pharma, biotech, medical device and healthcare customers.
SCM Pharma offers sterile and non-sterile GMP production services to assist clients progressing their innovative drug products or medical devices through clinical trials. With an emphasis on hazardous, novel and difficult new products, the firm also provides customers with a commercial supply of licensed products requiring ongoing small-medium scale volumes.
Housed in a 17,000 sq ft purpose built facility, the company’s specialist expertise is being able to sterile manufacture using terminal sterilisation and aseptically process radio-labelled compounds, highly potent products, biologicals and fill drug device combinations.
ENDS
Media contact: Raman Sehgal at SCM Pharma
01661 838 186 / ramans@scm-pharma.com
