Joining our series for his first exclusive, in-depth profile is self-made businessman & healthcare entrepreneur Dennis Bastas - Executive Chairman & CEO of DBG Health, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Arrotex Pharmaceuticals and Chairman of burgeoning consumer health enterprise, VidaCorp.
The son of Greek immigrants who migrated to Australia in the early 1960’s, Dennis grew up in Melbourne and studied a Bachelor of Engineering & Industrial Design at Monash University, graduating in 1988 with the intention of utilising his design skills to gain employment in the automotive industry.
Following challenging economic conditions in the early 1990’s, Dennis’s priorities shifted from pursuing a long-held dream in car design overseas to gaining employment locally in Melbourne, with one of his first professional roles commencing in the logistics department of Coles Myer.
Over the course of the following decade or so, Dennis gained experience working in a number of industries including the technology sector, wherein he had first-hand exposure to the perils of rapid-growth, cash burning businesses - an experience through which would later help to guide & inform his strategy to M&A activity.
By the early 2000’s, Dennis spotted an opportunity wherein relative to the rest of the World, Australia was a laggard in terms of distribution and access to generic pharmaceuticals and armed with this knowledge, commenced his first venture, Genepharm Australasia - a business he listed on the ASX two years later in 2004.
After an early period marked by a change in venture partners coupled with relative volatility in the share price, the business was re-named to Ascent Pharmahealth and by 2012, was acquired by US pharmaceutical company Watson in a $375m cash deal.
In September of 2015, Dennis then acquired Arrow Pharmaceuticals in a c. $380m deal, later merging the business in July of 2019 with Apotex Australia to form Arrotex Pharmaceuticals, the business of which he leads today as Co-Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer - a business which is now Australia’s largest generic drug supplier with over 1,260 products, over $2bn of sales and c. $200m per annum in earnings.
Within the broader DBG Health portfolio, Dennis has also diversified his interests through a number of ventures including VidaCorp, which holds consumer, challenger and private label brands, Juno Pharmaceuticals, a supplier of specialist oncology and surgery drugs to healthcare institutions and MyDNA, a business which specialises in providing medical testing equipment.
In this exclusive interview, Dennis takes us on a journey throughout his remarkable career, from the pivotal moments that led him into the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, to the growth and evolution of DBG Health - along the way, exploring the key lessons, achievements, challenges, and successes that have led him to become one of Australia’s preeminent businesspeople.
Founder & Host | Rob Langton
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