| 17th | Top pharmaceutical companies |
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: CEPH) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Frazer, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Key people | Frank Baldino, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Products | http://www.cephalon.com/products/default.aspx |
| Employees | 2,780 |
| Website | http://www.cephalon.com |
Cephalon, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPH) is a U.S. biopharmaceutical company co-founded in 1987 by Dr. Frank Baldino, Jr., a pharmacologist and former scientist with the DuPont Company, who continues to serve as its chairman and chief executive officer. The company's name comes from the adjective "cephalic" meaning "related to the head or brain," and it was established primarily to pursue treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.
Sales revenues reached $2 billion in 2008, ranking Cephalon among the leading biopharmaceutical companies in the world. In 2006, industry publication MedAd News named the company one of the ten most respected biotechnology firms in the world. Cephalon employs approximately 2,800 employees. CEO Baldino is paid an annual salary of $1,244,600.[1]
Cephalon is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 stock index, and was first included in the Fortune 1000 list of U.S. companies based upon annual revenues for 2006. However, as of end-July 2009, CEPH was still trading close to its 52 week low, whereas much of the broader market, had recovered substantially.
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The company's early research efforts were focused on the development of IGF-1, an insulin-like growth factor, under a collaboration with Chiron Corporation to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, but the product has never been approved.
More recently, the company has developed and commercialized products for the treatment of sleep disorders, pain, addiction and cancer. In addition to conducting research on kinase inhibitors and other small molecules, it has licensed compounds and acquired both products and other companies, including CIMA Labs, Anesta, and Laboratoire Lafon. It was from the latter company that Cephalon purchased the rights to modafinil, which was the pharma world equivalent of Bill Gates's purchase of DOS for pocket change.
In February 2009, Cephalon announced its intention to acquire Australian biotechnology firm Arana Therapeutics, a move that represents one of the largest changes in the Australian life sciences landscape. The acquisition of Arana brings Cephalon its lead biologic candidate ART621 for inflammatory diseases. Moreover, Cephalon is acquiring biologics for the treatment of cancers.
Its leading product is Provigil or modafinil for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy, sleep apnea and shift work sleep disorder. Sales of Provigil nearly reached one billion dollars for 2008.
Cephalon's US Drug Discovery group is remarkable in that it has failed to produce a single FDA approved drug in its 22-year lifetime, which is due at least in part to having focused on difficult therapeutic areas such as neurodegenerative disorders. However, recent efforts have been more promising in that they have met apparent clinical success in oncology, and have advanced several compounds from the company's internal research pipeline. For now, the main innovation would seem to be the medical and commercial strategy that broadly educated physicians about health problems associated with severe sleepiness, and the clinical development and marketing approach that created the extraordinary modafinil product franchise.
The company has its corporate headquarters west of Philadelphia in Frazer, Pennsylvania and its research operations in nearby West Chester, as well as manufacturing and other operations in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota and Salt Lake City, Utah; its European operations are based near Paris, France.
Key executives, other than Baldino, include J. Kevin Buchi, Dr. Peter Grebow, Dr. Lesley Russell, Robert P. Roche and Dr. Jeffry Vaught. Members of the board include venture capitalist William Egan, former COR Therapeutics CEO Vaughan Kailian, health-care economist Dr. Gail Wilensky, Dr. Martyn Greenacre, an ex-SB VP, former Harvard physician and Glaxo USA head Dr. Charles Sanders and former Ambassador Kevin Moley.
Select products that Cephalon manufactures and markets include:
Select candidates in Cephalon's pipeline include:
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