According to David Slade, Icon Group's global director of pharmacy and compounding, the recent acquisition of the UK-based compounding and pharmaceutical company Pharmaxo is part of a broader expansion strategy.
Icon Group is Australia’s largest dedicated cancer care provider. Mr Slade founded Slade Health Compounding in 2012. It has grown rapidly as a full-service compounder providing antibiotics, chemotherapy, analgesics, and theatre lines and as the exclusive compounder in Australia of Fresenius Kabi Total Parenteral Nutrition. It is now part of the Icon Group.
"Our growth strategy began in 2012 when we launched Slade Health. We spun Slade Health out of Slade Pharmacy because I could see a world where PBS reform, including price disclosure, would limit the hospital pharmacy business," said Mr Slade.
"This is the biggest acquisition I have ever done," he said, adding that its new UK sits complements its four in Australia and one in New Zealand. It increases the number of patients served by around 50 per cent, with another 600,000 infusions each year.
"Our standards are constantly getting higher. We have always focused on extending product shelf-life to more efficiently deliver treatments to people in regional areas and other states. I was trying to find solutions and stumbled across this company in the UK with a stability lab. We started talking about stability, which morphed into an acquisition discussion.
"That was back in 2018 and 2019. I visited them four times in 2019, and we got close to a deal. Of course, COVID hit, which meant the discussions were put on hold. We maintained the relationship.
"It is a pharmacist-established business like ours. The company was spun out of Bath University and has operated for over 20 years. We have aligned values that helped keep a great relationship going through the pandemic."
Mr Slade said the acquisition established a 'beachhead' for the Icon Group in the UK, a market of 66 million people, and the opportunity to share its capability and expertise.
"From diagnosis to treatment, it is up to 60 days in the UK, which would be unrecognisable for Australian patients. The pandemic hit cancer care in the UK very badly," he said.
"They are shattered post-pandemic. They have no staff or capital. The UK regulator raises the bar yearly for sterile standards as they should, like TGA, but providers have no people and limited capacity to deliver. In this situation, demand is outstripping supply by an enormous amount, and patients are not getting treatment on the days they are presenting to hospitals.
"We believe we can add value to our new site in Bath based on what we have done in Australia. We can make it easier, more efficient, and safer and deliver on time what the doctors prescribe to the hospital on the day of the patient's treatment.
"My vision is to transform the way chemotherapy is delivered in the UK so that patients get their treatment on time and in full every time."
Mr Slade said the company has already identified the challenges to address, such as capability, capacity, and technology.
"In the world of GMP compounding, it is a never-ending process of improvement," he said.
"There is an enormous opportunity to uplift the systems, integrate the systems being used by the National Health Service {NHS} with the third-party providers, streamline and automate that process, and then deliver in a timely way. There are issues. NHS places orders a month in advance, and they do not even know if they will get the treatments from the various third-party providers on the day. They do not get the treatments, and the patient presents. There is a mad scramble at the hospital to make the products in their older NHS facilities, which puts enormous pressure on the healthcare system and the pharmacy department."
Icon Group will invest in the acquired site. "That is probably one of our priorities, along with compliance. We will look to see how we can further partner with the NHS and establish and build on the relationships Bath and the vendors have built to help treat more patients. We see this as more than an acquisition. It is a further investment in the UK. As a private provider, there is an enormous opportunity to partner with the NHS."
Mr Slade said the immediate focus is integrating Pharmaxo with the Icon Group. "Once that is done, we will be looking to see how we might be able to partner more broadly."