Business View - February 2016 71
Samuel Benoni Siegfried in Zofingen, Switzerland, the
city which, to this day, remains the company’s world
headquarters. The original company had only 12 em-
ployees; now, there are over 2,400 of them spread
across the globe from the United States to Europe and
China.
Späne explains that Siegfried has always been a
company interested in growing both organically and
by acquisition. “In 1927, the family saw the U.S. as
a growing market and, from this, acquired a company
called Ganes Chemical Works in Pennsville, New Jer-
sey,” she says. In the early 1990s, Siegfried changed
its business model from that of a typical pharmaceuti-
cal company, creating and selling medicines under its
own Sidroga brand, into more of a development and
custom manufacturer of drug substances and drug
products for other companies.
In 2005, Siegfried bought the Penick Corporation, an-
other New Jersey drug manufacturing site. Späne says
it acquired Pennick so that Siegfried could strengthen
its position in the U.S. as a key supplier of opiate-based
controlled substances. “At that time, there were only
five licensed U.S. companies supplying controlled sub-
stances; one was held by Penick,” she says. “That’s
why Siegfried decided to buy Pennick - so that it could
play an important role in this highly regulated market.”
In 2007, Siegfried built its own manufacturing facil-
ity on the island of Malta, in order to complement,
through commercial production, its expertise in the
development of high-value, generic drug product phar-
maceuticals at the Zofingen, Switzerland site. Späne
explains that the Maltese facility helped make Sieg-
fried more competitive in the solid, oral drug products
market, manufacturing tablets and capsules. In fact,
Siegfried was the eleventh pharmaceutical plant to
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
The Siegfried Group
WHAT:
A worldwide player in the field of drug sub-
stance and drug product manufacturing
WHERE:
Headquarters in Zofingen, Switzerland
WEBSITE
:
MANUFACTURING
