Five minutes with Frank Padron, Head of North American Sales and Marketing, Salvat Biotech – DCAT Week ‘18

PH: Who are Salvat Biotech?

Frank Padron

Frank Padron

Padron: Salvat is a fourth generation, more than 60 years-old, family-owned Spanish pharma business based close to Barcelona. In the past it has primarily focused on the Spanish and European markets but this has changed in the last ten years. In the US, we have launched two FDA-approved products: Otovel and Cetraxal, which are eardrops for the treatment of acute otitis media and otitis externa respectively. The US will be the main area of focus in our future growth.

PH: Do you manufacture here?

Padron: We have one manufacturing plant here, with potential for others, and two more in Spain. There, we make drugs in many forms, including solids, creams, ointments, liquids and suspensions, and we are active in many different therapies.

PH: Do you have any particular techniques that you want to highlight?

Padron: For this particular field, the most unique thing moving forward is a technology called ‘Blow, Fill, Seal’ or BFS. All of our manufacturing in the US is done using BFS with a liquid drug contained in a single use low density polyethylene container – it is not proprietary, but few companies do it, so it is a key advantage for Salvat. A lot of companies are now moving in that direction but not many have the expertise that we do because we have been in it for over ten years.

PH: What are the advantages of BFS?

Padron: What’s great about BFS is that it’s sterile and is ideal for single dose products – you can hand this to someone and they can take it with them and they can put it in their eyes or ears without any preservatives, dyes or detergents. You can give it to a child or take it with you to work – it’s just more convenient than multi-use bottles.

PH: This is your first time at DCAT Week, I understand. What prompted you to come?

Padron: We had heard about DCAT Week through contacts. We are involved in CPhI, the Bio meetings, J.P. Morgan and other global meetings, so we wanted to experience DCAT here in the US and we have really enjoyed it. We really like the fact that it is so focused and you can go straight down to business at meetings. The format lends itself to being right down to what we need to talk about. We have done real business here; we have met a couple of interesting partners and we see real business coming out of it. And it is good for us just to get exposure – we both manufacture and license products out, so we can play in the sandbox with pretty much everybody who is here.