The Romans knew a thing or two about building and maintaining an empire, so it is appropriate that when Aesica Pharmaceuticals was born in 2004 through a management buyout of BASF’s API manufacturing plant in Cramlington, the company should take on the name of a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Chris Gowland, Group Chief Operating Officer, is the first to admit that it was not a particularly auspicious time to start up a new company, with the economic recession starting to bite; nevertheless, Aesica has grown every year and now has operations in the UK, Germany and Italy.
The company’s second acquisition was a site purchased from MSD in Ponders End, North London, in 2006. ‘That was a watershed moment,’ Gowland recalls, ‘because we then were manufacturing products for a Big Pharma company. Aesica hadn’t been around very long and said: “sell us your site and we’ll continue to make your products as we have the capability and expertise”.’
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