Business View Magazine - May 2016 87
In 2005, Siegfried decided to strengthen its own API
product portfolio business through purchasing licens-
es of niche opiate-based controlled substances from
Peneck Corporation, another New Jersey drug manu-
facturing site. Späne says this activity provided Sieg-
fried a nice position to play a significant role in the
highly regulated and controlled drug substance mar-
ket. “Realize too that Peneck was at that time, one of
only five licensed U.S. companies supplying controlled
substances to this very highly regulated market.”
In 2007, Siegfried wanted to have its own finished
tableting drug product manufacturing site; therefore,
it embarked on the idea to launch a pharmaceutical
production facility on the island of Malta, Spane says.
“Malta is a small island south of Europe, and is con-
sidered a lower-cost country where the natives speak
English, and, more beneficial to Siegfried, the island is
within close proximity of our current development hub
for drug product in the headquarters of Zofingen Swit-
zerland.” The Malta site both completed Siegfried’s
commercial production need and complimented the
expertise in development of high value, generic drug
product pharmaceuticals which were housed close
by at the Zofingen, Switzerland site. Späne further
explains that the Maltese facility helped make Sieg-
fried more competitive in the solid, oral drug products
market, manufacturing tablets and capsules. In fact,
Siegfried was one of the first pharmaceutical plants to
have set up shop on the island of Malta in the span of
the preceding four or five years.
During the same time as the site resurrection of
Malta, Siegfried also closely examined business seg-
ments within the organization that were not in line
with the company’s increased focus on moving away
from manufacturing its own products to become a full-
fledged, integrated service partner to others. Sidroga
and the biotechnology businesses were sold in 2007;
the pharmaceutical production site at Zofingen was
sold to Arena Pharmaceuticals in 2008; and, its Pul-
moJet subsidiary in Munich, Germany, a maker of a
dry powder inhaler, was sold in 2010 to Sanofi-Aventis.
“So, it was a clear strategy to transform Siegfried from
a mixed provider of services under its own brand into a
clear full-fledged service provider,” Späne affirms.
