HRA PHARMA : success due to high standards and therapeutic relevance

André Ulmann has returned to the École de Paris ten years after his first visit in 2003 to give an update on the company he created in 1996. His first product, Norlevo (or the ‘morning-after pill’), was a big media and therapeutic success. Since then, the company’s portfolio has grown and it has continued to develop in niches largely unexploited by the large industrial actors in the market. R&D is still a large priority as is the international commercialisation of its products. Consequently, HRA Pharma’s turnover has increased from 10 million Euros in 2003 to 55 million Euros in 2012. However, some of the initial principles have had to be revised, such as the decision to subcontract manufacture and distribution, or not to call on outside investors, since in 2011 an American investment fund invested money in the company. In the coming years, HRA Pharma has two challenges : to maintain a size which will enable it to continue to be as creative and flexible as it has been in the past ; and to manage as best it can the withdrawal from the company of its investor.