Pharmaceuticals
2017: No.=21 - £210m
2016: No.=21 - £170m

Andrew and Linda Leaver’s Burton-on-Trent based pharmaceutical company Clinigen is launching in Japan.

Clinigen KK expands the group's presence in Asia. Clinigen is also moving into the South African market.

The business has made impressive strides in the last year, with increased profits and revenue and a string of strategic acquisitions.

In the six months to December 2015 profits doubled to £44.1 million.

The company, which specialises in providing access to unlicensed drugs, reported significant organic growth and acquisitions to boost its product portfolio.

Clinigen is now a leader in the lucrative unlicensed medicine supply sector and the clinical trials supply market.

In March last year the company bought US-approved cancer treatment drug Totect, giving it important leverage in the lucrative US market.

It has also partnered with US counterpart Cumberland Pharmaceuticals to commercialise its oncology support drug Ethyol, which helps combat side effects from radiation treatment.

These acquisitions build on Clinigen's earlier acquisitions of Link Healthcare and Idis.

When Clinigen was floated on the AIM market in September 2012 it was hailed as one of the best stock market launches of the year.

Since then sales and profits have soared.

The £135 million flotation meant a windfall for Andrew and Linda Leaver who sold shares worth £37 million.

They retained a stake in the group which Andrew Leaver, 53, formed in 2010, bringing together Keats Healthcare, Clinigen GAP and Clinigen SP.

The business is worth close to £800 million and Andrew Leaver and his wife Linda retain a stake worth almost £100 million.

The family investment arm, Fullbrook Thorpe Investments, has recently invested in global pharmaceutical company Atlantic Healthcare to fund trials for bowel disease products.

Clinigen ships drugs to more than 75 countries. The company was set up to supply medicines for clinical trials.

It quickly developed into a global provider of specialist pharmaceutical products and services and in 2011 was hailed as the fastest growing private company in the UK in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

Now it has outlets in Tokyo and Philadelphia, as well as its headquarters and a distribution centre in Burton.

The company has a fast growing customer base of pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology specialists and research organisations.

The company's chief executive, Peter George stepped down in November to be replaced by former deputy CEO Shaun Chilton.