Precise Dosages, Accessible Costs Require Capsule Solutions

Q: Why should ACG Group be considered the ideal partner for pharmaceutical companies that seek integrated solutions for manufacturing?

A: When ACG started over 60 years ago, the owners decided to focus primarily on the healthcare industry. Every product and service we have developed has been specifically designed for the pharmaceutical industry, which means we have gained significant expertise in capsule manufacturing and drug processing equipment. We also cooperate closely with pharmaceutical producers to meet their specific requirements and regulatory standards.
There are a lot of mergers and acquisitions in this industry but we remain true to ourselves as a third-generation family-owned company. We are professionally managed by a group of CEOs, but we are a private company. Because of this, we put almost all our revenue back into the company to generate new innovative products and services.

Q: What strategies does ACG Group follow to meet its clients requirements?

A: Many customers come to us with a specific problem. Our R&D department designs specialty capsules and the machines needed to make them. One of our areas of expertise is liquid-filled capsules. Another is inhalation capsules for people with COPD, asthma or lung infections. Given the global trend toward animal-free products, especially for dietary and vitamin supplements, we developed a vegetable-based capsule that works just as well as gelatin. A few years ago, we designed an award-winning special blister package for a medication used to treat basic diseases in Africa, where humidity and temperature were rendering regular packages ineffective. We also developed the machine to make the package and kept the product cost-effective.

Q: What does the Mexican market mean for ACG Group? 

A: We started working in Mexico five or six years ago. We saw it as a large and well-developed market with a great deal of potential. We have since introduced a number of encapsulation machines, tableting machines, blister material for packaging and capsules. Customers in Mexico are knowledgeable and there is a strong culture of compliance with regulations and quality norms. We like to work with pharmaceutical companies in Mexico because we know they do things right.
At first, we faced the challenge of being unknown in the market. We had to develop a marketing program to raise awareness of our brand and convince customers to try our products. Over the last five years, we have grown substantially and customers have seen we are a serious company to work with. We have the resources and are here to stay. We work with local partners to provide technical support and maintain equipment for our products. We definitely see Mexico as a market with major growth potential, which is why we have a quite aggressive plan for 2020. Because of our proximity, we know products developed in the US will find their way into Mexico for manufacturing. Equally, Mexican pharmaceutical companies are introducing new products to the market. We can be ideal partners for them.

Q: How does ACG Group help to reduce counterfeit medicine production?

A: This is a global problem that we have been able to address in several ways. For example, we have the capability to develop intricate prints on capsules that include up to four different colors and cannot be duplicated by counterfeiters because of the complexity. We also create special capsules and packaging technology for customers and duplicating the molds is truly complicated.
Counterfeit products often do not look at the intricacies of the packaging. We have a special company in our group that is focused on inspection, tracking and verification. This allows us to go to existing pharmaceutical companies and rebuild their processing and packaging equipment so they can add certain characteristics, such as barcoding and batch aggregation. We collaborated on hundreds of product lines and have since brought this technology to other markets.

The ACG group is a supplier of integrated manufacturing solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. Its varied range of products includes capsules, films and sheets as well as machines for their products and inspection systems to meet national and international standards.