Novex Innovations, a Winston-Salem contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), has secured its capacity for growth with the recent purchase of two buildings and the addition of employees as it prepares to take a new approach to finding clients.
Founded in January 2014, Novex manufactures and develops processing for companies in the biomedical industry, specifically in biologics, drug products and medical devices.
“One of our values is to ultimately help the end user: the patient from a drug perspective or a surgeon from a device perspective, making the surgical procedure either simpler, quicker and easier on the patient,” said Doug Drabble, co-owner and chief operating officer of Novex.
Novex began doing small-scale manufacturing for startups, but the company has experienced an increase in clients and capabilities, leading to growth elsewhere in the company in recent years. Drabble said the company’s largest growth was between 2018 and 2019 and that Novex now does larger scale manufacturing, with the company even serving two public companies.
For younger companies, which make up a large portion of its clients according to Drabble, Novex offers infrastructure services that run the gamut – from manufacturing to packaging and shipping out the product as well as working with the companies’ clients to receive and invoice orders.
In January, Novex Innovations bought two buildings in downtown Winston-Salem, Albert Hall at 101 North Chestnut Street and Victoria Hall at 111 North Chestnut Street. Albert Hall currently houses Novex’s headquarters.
“The acquisition helps ensure that we control our own future," Jerry Barker, the company's CEO, said at the time. "Novex’s growth strategy includes expansion of our entire portfolio of services in the CDMO space, and owning our own facilities will provide us with the flexibility to support the changing needs of our company and our customers."
The company employs 26 people and has out offers for five additional employees, so Drabble said Novex will soon be at 31. Drabble expects to have approximately 48 employees by the end of 2022.
What began with 1,800 square feet with three labs and no offices has grown to 39,000 square feet with 14 labs, including four certified cleanrooms, in Albert Hall. Novex has roughly 45,000 additional square feet to expand into in Albert Hall, an 85,586-square-foot building built in 1915. Victoria Hall, built in 2000, adds another 59,860 square feet to Novex’s inventory.
Novex is currently working on expanding into an additional 9,000 square feet of space, Drabble said. He expects to need to continue expansion through 2023, by which time Drabble said Novex will be using close to 60,000 square feet across the two buildings.
Novex serves 36 clients from across the nation as well as from Europe and Japan. On a monthly basis, some 16 to 18 of its clients are active, based on where those client companies are in product development stages.
With the facilities and manpower Novex has, Drabble said the company is operating in the 60% range, meaning they have the capacity to take on new clients or products.
To date, Novex has not advertised itself, choosing instead to do bring in new clients through word of mouth. This has allowed them to provide their existing clients with excellent customer service, Drabble said. But with the growth in space and manpower, Novex is now building an internal infrastructure for marketing and sales that will start mid-year of 2022 to bring an influx of new clients. Its plan includes advertising and going to trade shows.
Drabble declined to divulge the exact names of products due to confidentiality agreements, but said that Novex creates medical devices for urology and ophthalmology, cancer drugs and products for pain and join inflammation.
“[The products] are way ahead of their time and they’re going to be able to help people who are currently suffering,” Drabble said.
Novex has not received any external funding and Drabble declined to disclose revenue figures but said that the company is cash-positive and the only debt it has is the mortgage on the recently purchased buildings.
