Avogadro moves into US drug R&D

A small French pharmaceutical R&D group Avogadro, based near Toulouse, is to establish a commercial subsidiary in Boston, Massachusetts, in order to be closer to the USA major drugmakers. The company achieves 40% of its sales through exports, which rose 20% last year to 6.0 million euros ($7.7 million).

Andre Weil, Avogadro's president, said the firm wanted to increase its US and Canadian clientele because these two countries produced 70% of the world's therapeutic molecules. R&D would remain in France but marketing of the operation would focus on Boston. Avogadro has benefited in the last few years from the tendency of drug majors to outsource R&D.

"Big pharma" sub-contract work accounted for 30% of activity, Mr Weil said, and is expected to reach around 50% within a few years. The pharmaceutical R&D market has already reached $15.0 billion in the USA and 8.0 billion euros in Europe, he noted.