Kent-Athlone Pharma Group

A European Specialty Pharmaceutical Company

Your partner of choice, when excellence matters

The Kent-Athlone Pharma Group has a strong network of over 50 international partners, enabling us to collaborate and support customers and suppliers across Europe and beyond.

We strive to transform healthcare through innovative pharmaceutical products and are dedicated to bringing new products with added value to market, to meet the diverse needs of patients and healthcare providers. Our commitment to quality, accessibility, and patient centricity drives everything the Kent-Athlone Pharma Group does.

We offer a broad product portfolio of value-added medicines, delivered through investment in product development, in-licensing, and product or company acquisitions. Our key focus areas are anti-infectives, oncology, pain, and ophthalmology, and we are proud to be one of the largest suppliers of hospital injectable and oral dose products to the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK.

To complement our product portfolio, we are also a leading service provider for over-labelled medicines to facilitate operational efficiencies, to over 200 customers in the UK, including the NHS, private hospitals, walk-in clinics, community services, ambulance trusts, and the prison service.

The Kent-Athlone Pharma Group of Companies

Established in 1986, Kent Pharma is recognised as a leading sales and marketing distributor of value-added medicines. We supply the NHS and retail pharmacy via wholesalers in the UK, as well as international markets.

As one of the fastest growing specialty pharmaceutical companies in the Republic of Ireland, Athlone Pharmaceuticals supplies a comprehensive range of value-added medicines to hospitals and retail pharmacies nationwide.

Our Leadership

Terry Petersen

Chief Executive Officer

Terry has over 20 years' experience in pharmaceuticals and broad General Management across all functions and has led UK and European businesses for Private, Public MNCs, and Investor-Led companies. In recent years, he has focused on SME businesses, delivering rapid growth. Terry's track record includes notable achievements in M&A, Business Development, and Partnering, with experiences spanning from start-up to scale-up internationalisation and exit – Terry led the carve out of a European business to found CNX Therapeutics in 2021.

Olga Lund

Chief Financial Officer

Olga Lund has over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceuticals industry, following an early career in insurance and banking in the City of London. As a qualified accountant, she has held a range of senior finance roles in pharmaceuticals across both publicly listed and private equity-backed companies, supporting research and development programs, product launches, international expansion, and strategic portfolio acquisitions.

David Wright

Chief Business Officer

David has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals and Medical Device industries, including two decades within the PLC environment. He has held senior leadership positions in Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Business Development. With vast experience across multiple territories including the UK, US, and Ireland, David has been deeply involved in M&A activities for the past 15 years. Additionally, he has led integration, development, and infrastructural projects throughout his career.

Clare Silcock

Operations Director

Clare brings over 20 years of experience in pharmaceuticals, encompassing R&D, Clinical Trial and Commercial Supply Chains across both branded and generic environments. With extensive expertise in developing and enhancing Supply Chain performance and resilience, Clare has a proven track record in implementing significant operational and Supply Chain change projects, including ERP system, MRP and 3PL site move. Additionally, Clare is responsible for the leadership and management of diverse operational teams.

Derek Martin

Director of Regulatory and Quality Operations

Derek has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceuticals, spanning all Technical, Quality, and Regulatory domains. Over the course of two decades, he has been deeply involved in project management, including new pharma site builds through to product technical transfers. Derek has played a pivotal role in setting up multiple quality management systems, from inception to inspection and manufacturing and wholesale authorisation award. Additionally, he has served as a key stakeholder in Group M&A activities over the last 10 years.

Nikki Jessop

Director of Hospital Business

Nikki brings over 20 years' of commercial experience within branded and generic pharmaceuticals. She has a wealth of experience across the hospital market/sector, having successfully led key product launches across a broad range of therapy areas including oncology, HIV, anti-infectives and biosimilars. Nikki is highly respected in the UK hospital sector with a strong stakeholder network across the NHS, private organisations, and hospital wholesalers.

Jon Williams

Wholesale Director

Jon brings over 20 years of commercial experience, including a wealth of expertise in generics, branded generics, branded medicines and pharmaceutical wholesale. An experienced leader, he has built and successfully managed UK teams across multiple therapeutic areas (including respiratory, ophthalmology) engaging with primary care, retail pharmacy, hospitals and the private sector.

Ownership & Board of Directors

Kevin James

Non-Executive Chairman

Kevin has over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical Industry. He served as Managing Director for a Top 3 UK Pharma company and has extensive experience in both the US and European markets. Throughout his career, Kevin has successfully completed numerous company and product acquisitions.

Charlie Troup

Managing Partner

Charlie joined Duke Street in 2006 and currently serves as the Chair of the investment committee. Prior to his role at Duke Street, he was a partner with Permira. In 2022, Charlie held the position of Chair of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA). He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College, London, and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Renee Hoff

Investment Director

Renee joined Duke Street in 2017 with a focus on healthcare investments in Europe. She holds a BA (Hons) in Biology and an MSc in Neuroscience.

Chris Riggs

Non-Executive Director

Chris brings a wealth of experience in growing businesses and shareholder value, having served as former CEO and CFO of public and private equity-owned companies. He led the development of Quantum Pharma PLC, resulting in its sale to Clinigen PLC for £156m in 2017 and Mandata for £82m in 2021. Previously, Chris was a Director in Deloitte's corporate finance practice and managed Barclays Bank's large corporate business in the North East. Nowadays, he focuses on Non-Executive Director roles across healthcare and technology sectors and is an active investor.

Our History

1974

Athlone Laboratories established in Ballymurray, Co. Roscommon

1986

Kent Pharmaceuticals established in Ashford, Kent

1992

Kent Pharmaceuticals acquires Athlone Laboratories

2011

Acquisition of Neolab UK

2013

Acquisition of Kent Pharmaceuticals/Athlone Laboratories by DCC Vital

2014

Kent Pharmaceuticals acquires Beacon Pharmaceuticals

2019

Acquisition of Kent Pharmaceuticals/Athlone Laboratories by Duke Street Capital

2020

Athlone Pharmaceuticals distribution business launched in Ireland

2021

Kent Pharma acquires Dalkeith Group of Companies

2022

Defined Re-focused 5 Year Strategy for Growth

2025

Kent-Athlone Pharma Group divests Athlone Laboratories 2025

Our Presence

Group Headquarters and UK Affiliate:

Ashford, UK

EU Headquarters and Ireland Affiliate:

Dublin, Ireland

Over-Labelling Production & Distribution Centre:

Measham, UK

Formulation Development Laboratory:

Huddersfield, UK

Export Products

Both from the UK and Ireland to Europe and beyond.

Our Strategy

Building a European Specialty Pharmaceutical Company, to deliver rapid, profitable growth

If you require general information concerning one of our products, including availability, please contact our customer services team:

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