Vimachem is a company that started in 2007 as an equipment reseller but a few years later launched a division that develops specialized manufacturing execution systems. Vimachem's platform serves the needs of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The division spearheads innovation and drives the growth potential of the company. We met with Alex Vidras the founder and CEO of Vimachem. Here's what he told us. 

Tell us a few things about Vimachem. How did it all start and where are you today?

Vimachem was founded in 2007 as a reseller of machines to the Greek pharmaceutical industry. In 2015, we launched a software division that develops and sells an in-house developed software platform to pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers. 

Today Vimachem operates both business units and with a team of 40, has been able to expand its software business outside Greece, providing software solutions developed in Greece, to pharma and biotech companies across the world, in countries like the USA, Germany, Sweden,  Japan, Australia and many more. 

What does Vimachem offer? What value do you bring to the clients and partners?

Vimachem specializes in the pharma and biotech manufacturing sectors, offering a software platform with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies that allow pharma manufacturers to scale faster and improve process quality while gaining production efficiencies. 

The pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated and quality comes at a cost. As new biotech and personalized medications are developed, pharmaceutical companies need to be able to reach the market faster expediting the time from development, to commercial manufacturing and distribution. Vimachem specializes in optimizing manufacturing processes while lately more and more research and development and clinical trial companies are adopting our software solutions.  

What would you consider to have been your greatest challenge so far?

Building a core team in Greece which has international ambitions and experience has been a key goal and challenge. The tech software in Greece is currently developing and finding ambitious individuals that combine software and pharmaceutical experience has been challenging. We have been lucky to recruit multiple Greeks that lived and worked abroad and wanted to return to Greece, but as we keep growing, the demand for highly specialized personnel is only increasing. We are excited to see multiple Greeks thriving in the pharma and biotech sectors outside Greece and we are constantly on the lookout for successful partnerships. We also launched in 2020 Vimachem USA so we can further strengthen our presence in the North American market and also recruit US talent. We are currently seeing big synergies between our US and Greek teams as we can transfer knowledge and expertise from the US to Greece while also being able to allocate Greek talent to the North American market which provides our Greek team global experiences and working experience with world-class  US customers. 

What are the biggest learnings from your journey so far?

I would say the “No Pain No Gain” quote is the first that comes to mind. We are constantly trying to operate outside our comfort zone so learnings are daily. We are taking calculated risks and we are trying to fail fast so we can expedite our learning curve and value proposition so we can outpace our competition. Pharma software is a developing global industry and to win over our North American competitors we need to drive innovation as fast as they do while maintaining our first-mover advantage in the European market and taking advantage of our Greek cost center. We are happy to see the Greek tech industry advancing and global players like Pfizer and Amazon entering the country and we are hoping that the Greek talent pool will keep developing while also attracting in Greece both Greek and international talent.