Innovation After Hours kicked off with an announcement from Mark Forsyth that the financing has been approved for the new RMI2 facility. This building will house 30,000 square feet of space for new companies, including wet lab space for the increasing number of life science companies looking to call Fort Collins home. After these announcements, Mike Duncan, the CEO of Tolmar, Inc provided the featured presentation of the evening.
Tolmar, a fully integrated pharmaceutical company, was founded in December of 2006 based on purchasing most of the assets of Atrix Laboratories, a long-established player in Northern Colorado founded in 1990. Among the assets purchased were several generic dermatology and dental products as well as manufacturing and processing facilities. The company, which is majority owned by Tecnofarma, currently operates four business units: topical generics, contract manufacturing, dental products, and proprietary topical products. Of these units, the topical generics and contract manufacturing units are profitable. The company has 15 marketed generic products with an additional one approved, five more under FDA review, and many additional products in various stages of development. Tolmar also has two proprietary products in development and hopes to launch its first in 2012 or 2013.
The company has achieved profitability sooner than expected and has taken this opportunity to reinvest into research and development. Duncan noted the company’s long-term focus of creating a vibrant and growing company rather than simply seeking to be acquired. To this point, Duncan noted that “you can’t create a stable pharmaceutical company unless you invest in R&D.” The company invests 80% of its development efforts into generic products where it is an experienced player, understanding both the clinical and market paths. Duncan commented that topical generics still require relatively robust testing in clinical trials to establish bioequivalence and generally take 3 to 4 years and $5 to $7M to get to markets. The remainder of development effort is concentrated on proprietary products in the dermatology area that represent “a higher risk, higher reward” equation.
Tolmar began with 140 employees at its founding and has since grown to include 227 full time staff. The majority of these employees are in manufacturing and logistics. The company partners with other companies for sales and marketing of most of its products, except for its dental line. Tolmar maintains 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 17,000 square feet of lab space in Fort Collins, and has three manufacturing expansions planned. Along with its organic growth, Duncan stated the company is actively evaluating potential acquisitions from which to add to its capabilities.
Innovation After Hours, occurring monthly on Thursdays, is a premier networking and education forum open to all members of the community that will be of special interest to those in scientific, technology and creative fields. It will showcase the best and brightest innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado and around the world. The event is sponsored by The City of Fort Collins, the Stonehouse Grille, and Ehrhardt, Keefe, Steiner, and Hottman PC. For more information please visit www.rmi2.org/.
