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President and Chief Executive Officer, Chair of Board
December 14, 2023
A 100th year in review
In 2023, West turned 100. As I look back across the year, I am proud to be part of this amazing organization. Our 100th year in service was a time to reflect on our heritage, celebrate everything we have achieved and look forward to our future with a renewed sense of determination.
West is a global market leader of innovative, high-quality injectable drug packaging and delivery systems supporting the therapeutic and vaccine needs of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
If you have ever been vaccinated, or if you or a loved one has ever needed to take an injected medicine, the injectable drug mostly likely was contained or delivered with a West product.
Our founder, Herman O. West, had a vision to innovate new solutions that would improve patients’ lives around the world. His principles of ‘never standing still’ and ‘always doing good’ have remained steadfast since our very beginnings.
Still to this day, our philosophy remains grounded in the important role we play in delivering life-saving medicines and the knowledge that every component we produce has a patient’s name on it.
Today we are 10,000 team members working together across 50 sites worldwide, to deliver over 47 billion components and devices each year. That’s over 128 million products every day… trusted by our customers… making a difference to patients. And throughout this year, we continued to expand our manufacturing capabilities so that we can continue to meet our customers’ needs into the future.
In our 100th year we worked hard to fulfill our purpose of improving patients’ lives around the world. And we also celebrated reaching this incredible milestone with a network of our local champions, all around the world – Team 100. They masterminded local anniversary celebrations at each of our global locations. It has been inspiring to see our team members coming together, having fun, building bonds and creating memories.
Sustainability and corporate responsibility remain a continued focus for West. We have continued to give back to the communities we serve. Collecting more than 751,000 meals during our annual food drive and raising $340,000 during our West without Borders* Campaign, our employee-led giving program. We were excited to have partnered with the Philadelphia Eagles on our Field Goal Forest initiative and collaborate with Corning® for sustainable drug delivery with the launch of Viridian™ vials.
The past few years have been a reminder that the world doesn’t stand still. And the needs of the healthcare industry are evolving and growing in complexity, from novel molecules and therapies to the increasing expectations of patients to shift treatment options from the hospital to the home setting.
West remains committed to the pursuit of scientific innovation and partnerships to address the changing needs of today and the next 100 years. Earlier this year we opened a state-of-the-art R&D Lab in Radnor, Pennsylvania supporting enhancements in chemistry, materials sciences and biology. This facility will allow us to bring our scientific and technical expertise together, so we can continue to define what’s possible in improving patients’ health.
I have immense pride for all that our One West Team has achieved in 2023 and honored to have had the opportunity to celebrate our 100 years in business together. May the holiday season bring you peace and joy, and a happy new year ahead.
*West without Borders is not affiliated with Doctors Without Borders®, which is a registered service mark of Bureau International de Médecins San Frontières.
Modern biopharmaceutical drug molecules are often complex protein structures that need to maintain the molecular structure in order to convey full potency. With biologics, any alteration of the 3-D structure could lead to loss of activity or even to immunogenic reactions in the patient. Proteins can be disrupted by interactions with the container closure or with leachables. West FluroTec® lamination was chosen for NovaPure® plungers to reduce the interaction between the drug product and elastomer material. This includes less adsorption to the plunger surface as well as reduction of the leachables profile of the plunger, helping to maintain the stability of complex molecules.
Injectable drug delivery and containment can be a challenge for drug manufacturers, especially as regulations and quality standards are increasing and as biologic drug products present new challenges in their sensitivity and dose volume. At West, we work closely with our customers to understand industry trends, the challenges our customers face, and we work by their side to drive new innovations to support their work to deliver medicines to the patients that need them.
Drug shortages put patients at risk. Adverse health consequences can occur quickly when shortages make maintaining and/or complying to a therapeutic regimen difficult. In a recent <a href="http://www.nature.com/clpt/journal/v93/n2/full/clpt2012220a.html"><span style="color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;">paper</span></a>, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) director, Janet Woodcock and her CDER colleague Marta Wosinska offered insight into the challenges CDER faces in choosing a course of compliance action when shortages of critical drugs occur. In the paper, CDER officials cited quality issues as the largest cause (56 percent) of drug shortages in 2011.
Fran DeGrazio is an industry leader with over 35 years of experience in technical product development, quality, regulatory, marketing, and business strategy. Prior to retirement in 2022, DeGrazio was West Pharmaceutical Services’ Chief Scientific Officer and led a legacy of innovation through Quality by Design (QbD) and leading patient-centric elastomer components. Before her retirement I had the opportunity to discuss the development of 4040/40 gray formulation as the newest addition to West’s quality by design program the formula journey, the evolution and its importance in the marketplace.
Over the past decade, as more and more of us turn to the Internet to do business, so have cyber criminals. Managing the onslaught of cyber threats has become a full-time job. West recognizes the importance of a sound strategy for addressing cyber security to ensure we are making the right investments to protect our information assets, our personally identifiable information, and our reputation from attacks.