Can you give an overview of Contract Pharmacal Corp and the company’s main activities in the past 12 months?

Contract Pharmacal Corp (CPC) is driven by the mission of setting and raising the standards in contract manufacturing/packaging and pharmaceutical development. The onset of the pandemic brought along many challenges with some, such as supply chain and logistics disruptions and skilled labour shortages, continuing into the present day. We had to be creative and quickly adapt to navigate through the challenges and are working hard to not only retain the people we have, but also recruit and attract new talent to our company. We had to get much more involved in our vendor relationships, just as our customers had to get much more involved with us in terms of the entire process.

What is the best strategy for dealing with supply chain disruptions?

CPC’s approach from the get-go has been open communication with both our customers and vendors. We had to quickly set up effective avenues of good communication to be able to continue operations in this current market space. Understanding and keeping a pulse on the environment and what is happening is essential. One of the major benefits of CPC is that we have offices and boots on the ground in the US, China and India which gives us the ability of real time information sharing of what is happening in the critical markets that service our business. Knowing and understanding how markets are reacting gives us an advantage in our decision-making process. Our ability to obtain knowledge and information about market trends and establish good communication with customers and vendors allows us to react faster and have some type of contingency in place.      

Which industry trends will CPC be focusing on for the next few years?

CPC’s focus and growth has been in the Rx, OTC and dietary supplements sector and we see these sectors only continuing to grow. People are increasingly choosing OTC products. In addition, I think the pandemic has opened people’s eyes to the importance and value that comes with dietary supplements such as vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B12, zinc and OTC products related to immune support. We will continue to see an increased demand for these products in the years to come.

CPC’s primary focus is solid-dose manufacturing. Over the past two years we have added substantially to our production capabilities for this segment to support the growing business.

Can you speak to CPC’s growth and acquisition strategy moving forward?

Over the past year our growth has been mostly organic with us increasing our production capacity, but we are constantly reviewing the market for good acquisition opportunities.

How does CPC attract and retain talent in an environment where there is a skill shortage?

CPC employs approximately 1,500 employees of which more than 15% are solely dedicated to quality. Our primary focus is retention of good talent through creating a culture and environment which people want to be a part of. We celebrate and honor our team through development programs and incentives. Having a positive team is a great advantage when recruiting new talent, as people notice the family culture and atmosphere and want to become a part of it.    

What are CPC’s objectives for the next two years?

In the short term we are focused on how we can keep delivering to our customers and if we have to be innovative to meet this objective we will be. As we are facing a difficult supply environment we must pivot and work with our vendors and customers as closely as possible. We hope to see the supply chain return to a normal level in the near future, which will significantly alleviate some of the pressures that we are facing today. CPC will continue to look for strategic partnerships and we are investing internally to add to our core expertise and the value we can offer to our clients. We are always open to opportunities and maintain an open mindset as regards growing our business. New innovations are constantly brought to the market and we are open to exploring opportunities that can positively impact our business.