BENSALEM, PA – With a great sense of pride for the community, SigmaPharm Laboratories was blessed by His Eminence Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey on Friday, February 10 in Bensalem, PA. The Chairman of the Board and CEO, Dr. Spiros Spireas and his wife Dr. Amalia Spireas welcomed Metropolitan Evangelos, the clerical head of the community of St. George in Trenton, NJ Fr. Jimmy Pavlow, publisher-editor of the National Herald Antonis H. Diamataris, and journalists.
Dr. Spireas noted that “the blessing of the buildings and the staff is a tradition with which we grew up with and which continued at the opening. I think it gave us strength to realize our visions.”
“Now that we’ve grown, we expanded, and we are entering a new phase, we called Metropolitan Evangelos to celebrate the blessing and bless us. In the new phase we enter we need renewed blessing to achieve our goals,” added Dr. Spireas.
He then welcomed the publisher-editor of TNH Antonis H. Diamataris who noted that the historical newspaper of the Diaspora will in about two months celebrate its 102nd anniversary.
“Today, we celebrated the blessing of this institution,” he said.
Metropolitan Evangelos expressed his gratitude to the host for this “event of faith and love.”
“God inspires the work you are doing. It is sacred work that contributes to improving the health of all people regardless of faith. It is a work of faith, with love and sacrifice for your fellow man. I congratulate you and thank you for the invitation, it recalls the ‘arxasthai of God’,” said Metropolitan Evangelos.
He then referred to Dr. Spireas as a leader and benefactor of the Church and of the Diaspora observing that he donated the icon of Saint Charalambos and wished as he performed the blessing that the saint would guide and protect them.
He also praised the charity of his wife Dr. Amalia Spireas and her parents Dr. Anastasio and Vasiliki Kasapidis who at every opportunity speak with pride about the achievements of their children and their grandchildren, Maria and Sotiris.
Visibly moved by the gesture of the Metropolitan, Dr. Spireas said, “Saint Charalambos is the patron of our family to whom we pray at every step. In my village in Mani we have the church of Saint Charalambos and throughout my life I felt and feel that St. Haralambos was always beside me, inspired me, and protected me.” At the same time, he observed that the date of February 10th was chosen for the sanctification in order to honor Saint Charalambos.
Metropolitan Evangelos and the guests then visited the offices and the new areas of the lab for research on new drugs, and the production areas as well.
SigmaPharm Laboratories is one of the newer, emerging, and rapidly growing pharmaceutical companies in America. It is also one of the few founded by first generation Greek-Americans.
Established in March 2005, the company moved to privately owned facilities in Bensalem, PA, located in the North East suburbs of Philadelphia early in 2006. During the eleven years that have passed since then, it has tripled its premises and completed almost all of the work and installation of the most modern equipment that exists in the US and around the world. Currently, the company provides work for more than 150 executives, scientists, and technicians.
Asked about the progress of the company, Dr. Spireas said, “The company has so far thirteen licenses and already produces twelve generic medications. Most of them are available only in America. The scientific platform on which they are produced makes them more stable than most available are on the market including brand-name drugs. We have already submitted to the FDA application for approval of five other products. So we are talking about eighteen different medications. At the same time, we are in the application process on other unique medicines. The company is in an awesome growth and regeneration stage and we are in a very good situation.”
Asked if he believed his dreams and visions would become reality so soon, he said, “I always thought it would not be long before my dreams and visions came true. What counts and determines the future course of a company is the scientific platform. We have tremendous technological platforms unlike anyone else.
And we can easily overcome existing patents that serve as barriers. With this data the company can only go forward. Now, we have even entered the branded medicine production process, whose results will be seen after three to four years at least. The company is developing and expanding rapidly.”
Asked about the drug approval process by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Spireas said that it “remains the same lengthy process” and that “by June 2014 we started to pay a fee to have our products tested more quickly.”
Referring to generic medicines produced by the company, he observed that “it is bioequivalent to the brand-name drug. They have exactly the same dose and the same properties and I can say about the stability of generics that they are perhaps more stable. We are interested in producing authentic brand-name drugs, as well as generic drugs produces by no other company.”
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