Nexus Pharmaceuticals, an Illinois-based, family-owned pharmaceutical company, is making high-quality, affordable generic drugs for the ailing health care industry, according to Inc.

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In July 2019, Nexus announced a $250-million project in Pleasant Prairie that brought jobs to Kenosha County in its first phase. At the time, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said, “The multi-phase project is expected to be completed within 10 years. In the project’s first phase, Nexus will invest $85 million to build and equip a 100,000-square-foot, three-story sterile drug manufacturing facility.”

In June 2021, the company unveiled a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility with a mission to make high-quality generic drugs more affordable and accessible to Americans.

Mariam Darsot, Nexus Founder and CEO, has recently said that overreliance on overseas manufacturers has led to “supply-chain snags, quality-related recalls, and reduced export availability,” all of which has contributed to soaring drug prices and domestic shortages.

High drug prices and supply shortages have been preventing people from getting timely treatment. For instance, in the early stages of the COVID pandemic, Indian drug companies cut exports of more than 20 critical pharmaceutical agents so they can meet the demand of patients of their own country, causing a burden on the U.S. health care industry, according to Darsot.

She said, “I think it is fair to say that the pharmaceutical industry has done a lot of self-harm to its reputation through allegations of price-fixing, products of subpar quality coming from overseas, or the price gouging of critical medications.”

Darsot is now committed to changing the industry, from the inside out. Nexus, which was launched in 2003, has been prioritizing the production of historically scarce critical-need injectable drugs.

Nexus has already boosted the supply of two scarce, lifesaving drugs in the U.S., a succinylcholine chloride injection, a common drug used in patients with COVID, and a potassium chloride injection, an I.V. solution that is made by a very few manufacturers.

Darsot said the company focuses on producing in-need drugs, reducing consumer health care costs.

She said, “Being family-owned allows us to give back to a community that has given our company and family so much. It brings us back to our fundamental mission of helping provide affordable medications to those who need it most.” The story was published in Inc.