Cangene's business model shifted several times during its existence. There is some consensus that the company came to rely on revenue from United States stockpiling and bioterrorism contracts and did not adequately prepare for the disappearance of this revenue. At one point, the company attempted a shift away from contract manufacturing to research & development, but abandoned this track after about two years and subsequently moved to marketing of ready-for-launch products developed by other companies.
History
Cangene was founded in 1984 and had an employee count of 650 in 2004. In 2009, the number of personnel in the Winnipeg facilities alone was 550, with another 100 in Cangene bioPharma, 35 in its sales force, and about 100 across its plasma collection facilities. By the end of 2011, the overall number of employees was about 700, but significant cuts in personnel were conducted early in 2012. Such cuts were a continuation of a set of personnel reductions which began in mid-2010. In 2010, Cangene obtained United States distribution rights for WinRho from Baxter, which had held them since 2005. This was in part to counter declining sales of the product under Baxter, but also as part of the corporate strategy, which called for development its own IVIG product. As both WinRho and the newly conceived product were dependent upon human plasma as source material, Cangene expanded their plasma collection facilities in 2010. Development of the new IVIG product was subsequently cancelled in 2012, representing a strategic turn away from R&D toward marketing in an attempt to return to profitability. Decline in profitability had come in part due to decreased cash flow from a bioterrorism-related program of work with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. In 2012, the company obtained exclusive United States distribution rights for Episil. In 2013, the company purchased rights to development and commercialization of three drug candidates, recombinant blood clotting factorsVIIa, VIII and IX, the latter of which is in clinical trials. In February 2014, the company was acquired by Emergent BioSolutions.
Corporate governance
As of 2010, Paul Brisebois served as the company's vice president for commercial development. At the time, the company was in the process of expanding its sales force and shifting focus from contract manufacturing to a "strategy to optimize our commercial assets." In 2011, the company's "longtime CEO", John Langstaff of Winnipeg, resigned and leadership went to John Sedor of Philadelphia as president and CEO.
Operations
Cangene's two manufacturing and plasma collection facilities were located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The contract manufacturing subdivision, Celegene bioPharma, maintains facilities in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The sales and marketing office was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Most of the company's senior leadership were also based in Philadelphia by the time the company was sold in early 2014.
