When Atul Aggarwal started Marcan Pharmaceuticals with his brother in 2005, he said many people advised them against being based in Ottawa. “When I started in the pharmaceutical business, I really wanted to stay in Ottawa,” Aggarwal told OBJ last week. “There were many who said, ‘You really need to move to Toronto or Montreal. […]
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When Atul Aggarwal started Marcan Pharmaceuticals with his brother in 2005, he said many people advised them against being based in Ottawa.
“When I started in the pharmaceutical business, I really wanted to stay in Ottawa,” Aggarwal told OBJ last week. “There were many who said, ‘You really need to move to Toronto or Montreal. In Ottawa, it will be very difficult for you to (build a pharmaceutical company).’
“I think my brother and I were both quite determined that we would set up a base here. There was no reason why we couldn’t start the company here and invest in (Ottawa).
“I like to call it an Ottawa success story because we’ve been under the radar. Not many people know about us, but we’re a small but mighty company,” Aggarwal said.
Today, Marcan is the only company of its kind in the city, but has approximately 10 competitors in Canada, Aggarwal said. “It is a very competitive market.”
Despite the competition, Marcan is growing four times faster than the rest of the Canadian market, Aggarwal said. Earlier this month, the firm moved from the 6,000-square-foot office it had been in since 2018, into a nearly 11,000-square-foot office on Gurdwara Road in the city’s south end. The larger space was needed as Marcan grew from 20 employees to more than 50.
“(We have) the capacity to continue to grow the business (with this) footprint to roughly 70 people,” Aggarwal said.
The biggest segment of Marcan’s workforce is its quality and regulatory team, which is focused on bringing new products to the market, followed by its operations and logistics team.
“We’re bringing in products from overseas into the Canadian market and distributing them to … over 12,000 pharmacies across Canada. There are more pharmacies in Canada than there are Tim Horton’s, so we have a lot to cover,” Aggarwal said.
Aggarwal and his brother came up with the idea for Marcan while working on their first venture, pharmaceutical ingredients company A&A Pharmachem. They saw an opportunity to manufacture finished doses for generic drugs.
“We manufacture using various contract manufacturers around the world and sell our products to pharmacies and hospitals across Canada,” Aggarwal said, adding that Marcan launched its own brand of drugs in 2008.
Founded in Canada, Marcan was acquired by Indian pharmaceutical company Emcure Pharmaceuticals in 2015.
“We were doing private-label generic (drugs) at the beginning, but we launched our own brand. That required (us) to grow the company. When we (partnered) with Emcure Pharmaceuticals out of India, that brought us a lot more products for the Canadian market. It was a big accelerator for us,” Aggarwal said.
In 2023, Marcan acquired Quebec-based Mantra Pharma, helping to bring the company’s total headcount to over 200 in Canada across both brands.
The company is going to continue to invest in developing complex products, such as injectables for hospitals, in an effort to boost business, Marcan CEO and president Sudheer Paladugu said.
“In 2008, we received our first approval for product launch in the Canadian market. Today, we are close to 165 products approved with more than 100 products commercialized,” Paladugu said, adding that oncology products make up Marcan’s strongest sector.
Over the next few years, Aggarwal said Marcan will look for acquisition opportunities to help the company scale.
“The company is looking for further acquisitions to grow, so growing both organically and inorganically. We’re very bullish on the Canadian market and we’ll continue to invest millions of dollars in Canada to continue to grow our business,” Aggarwal said.
