When Jeffrey Yordon founded Sagent Pharmaceuticals in 2006, he was in for a wild ride. He faced the challenging task of raising funds in one of the worst recessions in the country’s history, and on top of that, he had to deal with the fact that the FDA increased its approval times from about 14 months to 30 months.
Despite the challenging economics, Yordon raised the money he needed and created one of the strongest pipelines in the industry. He also had to make commitments to partners to perform development activities years before the products would actually generate any revenue because of the long timeline for FDA approval. As it got going, the company came close to running out of cash on more than one occasion as it developed and licensed products while also building a 300,000-square-foot facility in China. As a result, Yordon has to convince investors that the return wasn’t immediate with his company, but when they got the approvals and they began marketing products, the result would be rewarding — and he did just that.
Maybe it’s the fact that Sagent is the sixth company he’s founded or perhaps it’s just a testament to his leadership capabilities, but either way, Yordon has proven himself as an entrepreneur, and his network of contacts has faith in him and his abilities. Through all of his experiences, the key to success has been his ability to develop a unique strategy for each business that was appropriate at that point in time. He also made sure that he selected managers for each company that understood what was expected and that the expectations were extremely high. As a result, in every case, the companies saw extraordinary growth, and each was eventually sold, all of them giving exceptional returns for the shareholders.
How to reach: Sagent Pharmaceuticals, (847) 908-1600 or www.sagentpharma.com
