C2 Pharma: The World’s Leading Manufacturer of Ophthalmic APIs

C2 Pharma (C-Squared) specialises in the production and distribution of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and complex chemical compounds derived from both synthetic and natural sources.

The company was founded in 2014 after the acquisition of Boehringer Ingelheim’s phytochemical API product portfolio.

“In 2023 after 9 years hard work we finally reached goal of becoming the global leader in Ophthalmic APIs” says Serge Tarabay, Senior Business Development Manager at C2 Pharma.

Speaking to the PharmaSource podcast, he describes the company’s ambitious plans to release two to three Ophthalmic APIs every year to expand further into the market.

C2 Pharma’s extensive API product catalogue now encompasses a diverse range of compounds, such as atropine, bimatoprost, brimonidine, cyclopentolate, homatropine, latanoprost, pilocarpine, and tropicamide – and have recently received approval for Digoxin China DMF.

The company serves the needs of over 200 pharmaceutical enterprises spanning across the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

2024 trends: Increasing security of supply and maintain quality

Serge explains that a key issue they foresee in the year ahead will be the need to increase the security of supply and minimise the risk of market shortfall.

“C2 is working closely with external operational teams to identify market needs and make sure we have sufficient stock in our warehouses in Europe to ensure continuity of supply. Customers are looking for redundancy in the supply chain to avoid any disruption in production.”

Another key issue is how the industry can maintain product quality at a time when cost-pressure is on. This question has now become critical, says Serge.

“When it comes to APIs, where lives are at stake, price should not come at expense of quality. It is important to find reliable partners rather than the cheapest available in the market.”

“We are seeing a lot of pressure on costs and are trying to absorb it as much as possible. We have to support customers and always be fair, but we see that quality is costing more and more these days.”