This is what I found on Solco.
Solco Healthcare U.S., headquartered in Cranbury, New Jersey, is an industry leader in marketing and distributing generic pharmaceuticals. Solco is committed to providing our customers with high quality, cost effective and innovative generic prescription medications. Solco offers a broad range of generic prescription products in a variety therapeutic categories, including cardiovascular, pain management and central nervous system products to name a few. Solco currently markets 38 products, with an additional 40 products pending approval by the FDA, and a robust R&D pipeline of potential new products. Our products are manufactured in state-of-the-art GMP facilities in China using the highest quality assurance standards that meet the FDA regulatory requirements. Solco is a fully owned subsidiary of Prinston Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical , leaders in drug development and manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and finished dosage products. Together we strive to offer greater access to affordable medications that you can trust.
History
Our history starts with Solco’s parent company Huahai Pharmaceutical. Huahai is a large scaled modern pharmaceutical group that integrates formulations, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and intermediates, to deliver high quality generic medications throughout the world. Founded in 1989, Huahai expanded to the United States in 2004 forming Huahai US to sell API to US pharmaceutical customers. In 2009, Huahai launched Prinston Pharmaceutical, a generic drug delivery company focused on developing generic prescription pharmaceutical products for the US market. Combining Prinston’s strategic drug development capabilities with Huahai’s state of the art, high quality manufacturing capabilities created the opportunity to self-distribute its products throughout the US via the customary generic channels (i.e., wholesalers, distributors, chain stores, etc.).
In 2012, Huahai/Prinston acquired Solco Healthcare US from Legacy Pharmaceuticals. Solco was a new generic pharmaceutical distributor, founded in 2010. Relying on key development partners to launch its products, Solco quickly created a name for itself by offering value driven products with impeccable service and supply. It was these key qualities and a shared vision of offering greater access to affordable medications that convinced Huahai/Prinston to acquire Solco.
Solco’s growth within the last five years has been impressive. QuintilesIMS has listed Solco as one of the Top 10 fastest growing generic companies three years in a row (2014, 2015 & 2016). This achievement is due to following a simple philosophy, consistently supply your customers with high quality, value add products at reasonable prices.
Leadership Team
Solco’s leadership team is focused on putting its customer’s needs first. While cost is a main driver in the generic industry, superior quality and a consistent and reliable supply of product is what continually drives the Solco team to perform at its best. Our leadership team and employees strive to maintain and strengthen our customer relationships to ensure continued growth.
Hai Wang
President
Hai is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with over 25 years of proven experience in both generic and branded pharmaceutical industry. He has played leadership rule in business development, strategy, corporate management, licensing, operation/supply chain management, sales and marketing in the entire business spectrum from APIs to finished dosage forms. Hai heads up Solco’s business and operations. He is also a senior management team member of Prinston Pharmaceutical Inc. and Huahai US Inc. with responsibility of driving strategic growth for the Company in the finished products.
Prior to joining Solco, Hai was the Senior Vice President in Business Development and Marketing at Prinston Pharmaceutical, Inc. He has also co-founded Huahai US, Inc. and held senior management positions there. Hai began his career as a chemist at Vintage Pharmaceutical. He then worked at Pfizer for eight years in various roles with increasing capacities. Hai holds a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science degree from East China University of Science and Technology, a Master of Science degree in Chemistry from East Tennessee State University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - The Lally School of Management and Technology.
David M. Ayres
Executive Director of Sales
Mr. Ayres joined Solco Healthcare U.S. in January of 2010. As Director of National Accounts, Mr. Ayres is responsible for sales and account management which encompasses every class of trade in the pharmaceutical industry. Since joining Solco, Mr. Ayres has been instrumental in helping Solco grow from $1MM Gross Sales in 2009 to $50MM+ in 2013. In October of 2013, David was honored to be named the Small Generic Company Trade Representative of the Year by Cardinal Health. Prior to joining Solco, Mr. Ayres spent 16 years with WellPoint Next Rx, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the United States, in various capacities including his most recent position, Director of Pharmacy Procurement and Forecasting. Mr. Ayres was responsible for negotiations and management of corporate contracts for pharmacy purchasing, inclusive of manufacturers, vendors, and wholesalers with annual purchases exceeding 2 billion dollars. This responsibility included over 200 million dollars of annual generic Rx purchasing. Mr. Ayres also negotiated all contracts with almost every generic manufacturer in the Unites States and was personally accountable for supplying the Company with generic launch forecast information. Additionally, his responsibilities included management of all human resource in the Generic Pharmacy Procurement department inclusive of contract purchases and negotiations of non-pharmaceutical vendors in excess of 15 million dollars annually. Mr. Ayres currently holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.
Chris Keith
Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Chris Keith is Solco Healthcare’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. Chris utilizes his 25 years of sales, marketing and business development experience in helping Solco achieve its market share and profitability goals. He continues to be part of the senior management team at Prinston Pharmaceutical with the responsibility of identifying opportunities for the company.
Prior to joining Solco, Chris worked at Prinston Pharmaceutical as Vice President, Marketing and Business Development where he successfully negotiated and closed multiple generic drug development deals and several in-licensing, as well as out-licensing opportunities for Prinston. Prior to Prinston, Chris co-founded Éclat Pharmaceuticals where he served as the company’s Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing. During his time at Éclat, Chris focused on identifying and commercializing niche brand and generic products including several 505(
(2) injectables and various liquid narcotic products.
Before Éclat, Chris spent 18 years with ETHEX Corporation. During his time at ETHEX, Chris held various roles but spent the majority of his time leading the marketing team as the Vice President, Marketing. Chris was responsible for directing the overall planning, design and implementation of all marketing, advertising and promotional activities relating to both current and future generic pharmaceutical products. Chris and his team were responsible for launching over 50 products with 87% of ETHEX’s products ranked #1 or #2 in market share position, while increasing net revenues $185.2 million within the last four years of his tenure.
Chris holds a Bachelors of Science in Marketing and Management, as well as a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Missouri St. Louis.
Introduction of Generic Pharmaceuticals
The main reason why generics are less expensive than branded medications has nothing to do with quality, but rather has to do with research and development. Discovering new drugs can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which gets factored into the cost of the drug. The FDA allows a specified time period during which the product innovator can market without generic competition. This allows the innovator to recover their development costs before lower cost generics enter the market. Generic manufacturers do not discover new drugs. Instead, they use FDA-approved formulas. By using the same active ingredients, they produce products which are identical (equivalent) to the branded medication. These cost savings are passed on to the consumer
Generic pharmaceuticals are identical (bioequivalent) to the branded medications with regard to:
Intended use
Effectiveness
Dosage form
Strength
Safety
Route of administration
Quality
Generic pharmaceuticals must:
Be manufactured under the FDA’s good manufacturing practice regulations as required of the innovator drug, also known as the brand name drug
Contain the same active ingredients
Be bioequivalent
Be bioavailable
Have the same use and indication
It is estimated that generic drugs save U.S. consumers $8 to $10 billion per year.
*According to the U.S. congressional budget office
