With the pharmaceutical and biotech industries becoming more and more prevalent in the world today, chemical manufacturing companies like Synthetech Inc. (OTCBB: NZYM) are beginning to come into their own.Synthetech is rapidly developing a reputation as a “fine chemicals” company that specializes in organic synthesis, biocatalysis and chiral technologies. It not only develops and manufactures amino acid derivatives, specialty amino acids and peptide fragments for the pharmaceutical industry, but it also supports the development and manufacture of therapeutic peptides and peptidomimetic small molecule drugs at “every stage of the customers clinical customer development pipeline,” according to the company’s Web site.
According to Greg Hahn, PhD, and spokesman for the company, this reputation is finally starting to pay off.
“We sell a capability,” Hahn said. “We manufacture intermediates for ethical pharmaceutical products, products that will eventually be prescription pharmaceuticals, and we participate all the way through the commercialization. We like to get in at the clinical stage of development.
“What we’ve been doing is trying to push out of a turn-around situation,” Hahn continued. “Over the last year or so, we’ve had three positive quarters. Before that, we hadn’t had a positive quarter for about five years, but we’ve continued to push hard in that effort.”
At this point, the company’s focused on growing revenue to help push it out of the turn-around it’s in.
“We’re in the process of expanding our revenue-creating abilities and adding people … to push our abilities, as well as expanding the scope of our approach as we make sales inquiries,” Hahn said. “It’s important for us that the number of developmental products increases, and that’s because the more of those we have, statistically, the more of those that will go to commercialization. The more we put in the hopper, the more will come out the other end. The best way for us to continue generating revenue is to increase the number of developmental projects we’re participating in.”
According to Hahn, Synthetech’s success revolves around three key areas; the speed of their delivery, their low costs, and the unique technology they use to manufacture the chemical products.
“We sell a capability, and the technology we use is the lever in that capability,” Hahn said. “Because of the unique technology we have – which, for the most part, is a trade secret – we can produce some very complex pharmaceutical intermediates. That’s why our customers come back to us again and again.”
