Bora strengthens commercial team ahead of North American facility acquisition

Bora Pharmaceuticals, a full-service contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) which specializes in immediate and modified release tablets and capsules, along with serialized packaging, has announced the appointment of four business development directors to its commercial teams in the US and Taiwan.

This is a result of Bora experiencing continued demand for its CDMO services in North America, Asia, and Europe, and to support the company’s planned acquisition of GSK’s facility in Mississauga, Canada.

Mark Dawson joins the team as Senior Director of Business Development. Based on the West Coast of the US in San Francisco, Mark brings a wealth of CDMO sales experience, having worked for Catalent, Eurofins, and Patheon over the last decade.

Heading up the Southeast and Midwest sales in the US, David Scheib joins the team as a Business Development Director. Based in Georgia, David brings almost 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical sales, having worked at Avara Pharmaceutical Services and Recro Pharma.

Responsible for the Northeast US and Eastern Canada, Bora welcomes Kalyan Potluri as a Business Development Director. Formerly a Research Scientist at Pfizer before moving into sales for CDMOs such as Almac, Kalyan’s background in R&D adds a rich understanding of drug development challenges to the team.

The company has appointed Wayne Hsiao as Asia Business Development Director. Wayne brings over 17 years’ sector experience, previously working in API business development and regulatory technical services at ScinoPharm. He will be responsible for advancing strategic partnerships across Asia.

Headquartered in Zhunan, Taiwan, Bora expects to complete the acquisition of GSK’s Mississauga, Canada facility by the end of 2020. The deal will see the company retain approximately 400 GSK staff and continue to produce GSK’s products for over 100 markets for a minimum of five years.

Sam Ricchezza, President of North America Operations commented: “We are excited about the addition of such an experienced business development team. The next six months will be an exceptional turning point for Bora as we complete the next phase of our expansion into North America with the acquisition of GSK’s world-class facility in Mississauga.

“With the Mississauga manufacturing facility, we can leverage Canadian talent, capability, capacity, and location to become a truly global contract development and manufacturing organization.

“The addition of such an ambitious and experienced business development team positions Bora for further growth to support a global clientele as we considerably increase our size, capacity, and capabilities to include solids, semi-solids and oral liquids.”

Lonnie Barish, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Bora added, “We are really pleased to be able to welcome such a talented group to our business development team in such a short time.

“We are excited to see the impact this team will have in supporting the needs of our pharmaceutical clients that require late-phase clinical and commercial scale simple to complex tablet and capsule manufacturing.

“The depth of knowledge across this group will support our current and future customers in all corners of the world, as the market seeks CDMOs with excellent customer service, technical agility, and niche capabilities such as extrusion-spheronization, bilayer tableting, and solvent handling.”

USFDA, MHRA, and TFDA certified, Bora offers a broad range of technologies and services to its global customer-base including development, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, tech transfer, stability studies, and product life cycle management.

About Bora Pharmaceuticals

Bora is a leading full-service contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that specializes in immediate release and complex modified release drug product manufacturing and serialized packaging for solid oral dosage forms.

Employing over 475 people across its two state-of-the-art facilities, the CDMO has the capacity, agility, and expertise to take on simple to large scale challenging projects, offering tailored solutions for niche drug product requirements.

Bora is set to acquire GSK’s Mississauga facility later this year, expanding its offering to include semi-solid (creams, lotions, gels) and liquid dosage forms. The publicly listed company is supported by several investors and shareholders such as UMC and Taishin Financial Holdings.