CPHI Pharma Award Winners 2022: Finished Formulation – Accord Healthcare

Joseph Dunford, Accord Healthcare VP Speciality Brands, accepting the Award on behalf of the Accord team at CPHI Frankfurt

In this series of interviews, we speak to the teams behind the winning concepts at CPHI Pharma Awards 2022, in each of the different categories, from digital innovation to CEO of the year. 

This year, you won the CPHI Pharma Awards for Finished Formulation, can you tell us more about the winning formulation? 

Sixmo® is a buprenorphine implant for Opioid Use Dependency (OUD), so called because it lasts for six months. For those people that are prescribed Sixmo®, it offers an alternative to other formulations which require more frequent administration. For the prescriber, Sixmo® is a formulation that helps ensure the person who needs the medication, gets the required medication when they need it.

Can you describe how you first decided to start working on this project, and why it was important for patient health to do so?  

We started looking at the potential of commercialising Sixmo® in 2018. At Accord we commit ourselves to improving treatment options and patient outcomes. With this commitment, we saw the need to offer patients more options for the treatment of opioid addiction, where treatment rates are low. Only an estimated 50% of people suffering with an OUD receive some form of substitution treatment, and coverage varies greatly between countries. Therefore, in 2020 Accord entered an exclusive partnership deal with Molteni to distribute Sixmo®, and since then, have been working together to bring this innovative treatment to the market to help those with opioid dependency. As well as offering another treatment option for patients, we believe that with a long-acting formulation requiring fewer interactions, it may help reduce the stigma, which is, unfortunately, often associated with OUD and the treatment for it.

What do you think is needed from the pharma industry as a whole, and governments, to become more proactive in the faces of these health crises? 

It is important for the pharma industry to work with the government to improve access to treatments that are going to positively impact patients and society. Often ensuring fair access to medicines not only benefits the person that is affected by their health condition, but also the families, communities and economies.  A joined-up approach is needed so that pharma industries can help governments improve health crises.

How will this product/technology/work benefit the pharma industry over the coming years?

An implantable formulation for opioid dependency is a new approach to treating this devastating disease, therefore new patient pathways need to be navigated, and new services need to be established.  Being able to offer alternative formulations, which offer people a choice, as well as help introduce these to the market, demonstrates that pharma can help the communities they serve.  We hope we can lead the way in helping support addiction services implement this new treatment, so we play a relevant role in making things better for healthcare professionals and the people that need it.  We think there is a place for implantable medicines, and helping introduce these to the market may open up the way for more medicines to be delivered in this way.

What does winning the award mean to you and what will it do for you as a company?

It really does highlight the work of the team and their commitment to ensuring that we continue to meet unmet patient needs.  To win at such an important event really does underpin the work that has gone into this launch, I know that I can speak on behalf of the team and say we are all absolutely delighted and our thanks goes out to the judging panel.

To see what the other teams have to say about their award winning work, see here.