Acton Firm In Growth State Of Mind
Fresh off landing $15 million in venture capital funding, Marlborough-based Acton Pharmaceuticals executives hope to hire up to 100 employees in 2010.
The company, founded in 2008, specializes in development and marketing of respiratory products and plans to hire about 80 sales staff around the country and 10 to 20 managers in the next calendar year, according to president and COO Daniel L. Kreisler.
Acton executives also recently finalized a deal with Forest Laboratories of New York to market and distribute that company's newest asthma inhaler product, Aerospan.
Kreisler and co-founder John W. Simon, who serves as CEO, are no strangers to the life science industry, or Forest Labs.
Shared History
Simon spent 10 years as vice president at Sepracor in Marlborough until 2007 and before that spent six years with Forest Laboratories. Kreisler spent 16 years with Forest before helping to co-found another company, JDS Pharmaceuticals, in 2004.
The two started Acton Pharmaceuticals in 2008 with the intention of specializing in respiratory products.
Forest Laboratories newest inhaler product, Aerospan, immediately peaked Kreisler and Simon's interest.
"We see a tremendous unmet need in this field," Kreisler said. "Asthma is still not adequately controlled by medications on the market. Our beginning is with Aerospan, but we envision licensing other opportunities that will further improve the products available (to asthma sufferers)."
Kreisler and Simon approached Forest last year to discuss an opportunity to market Aerospan, which has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The two companies reached an agreement last year for an undisclosed amount.
The agreement allowed Acton executives to seek venture financing and because the product has already been FDA-approved, Kreisler said they had numerous leads. They eventually landed $15 million from Sequoia Capital, a California venture capital company.
The money will help Acton further develop the product, ready it for manufacturing, and develop a commercialization strategy. Acton plans to outsource manufacturing of Aerospan to 3M facilities in California.
Kreisler and Simon were attracted to Aerospan because of its unique qualities that they hope will make it a hit in the $7 billion asthma-inhaler market.
Like most asthma products, Aerospan uses inhaled steroids as anti-inflammatory medication. Asthma causes the airways to close and tighten, and products like Aerospan loosen the muscles and allow breathing.
But Aerospan is different for two major reasons. Firstly, the product uses only environmentally-friendly chemicals in the inhaler's propellant. Some products use to use chlorofluorocarbons, which can deplete the ozone, but Aerospan uses the more environmentally safe chemicals, called HFC, or hydrofluorocarbons.
Aerospan also has a built-in spacer, which optimizes proper inhalation of the steroid. The spacer helps coordinate the breathing in of the medication with the pushing down of the inhaler. That increases the chances the medication will work effectively.
Kreisler said Acton Pharmaceuticals will be working throughout this year to establish manufacturing specifications and begin the marketing plan for the product. He expects the product to be launched in the first quarter of 2011.
In the mean time, Kreisler said the company is searching for new respiratory products to market to continue to expand the company's offerings.
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