Kentish Express Ashford & District
Staff join family to mourn innovative health pioneer
‘We had 5,000 different drugs, but not one could help him’
Hundreds of former employees, friends and family members said their final farewell to a pioneering pharmaceuticals boss after he lost his battle with a rare illness.
Denis O’Neill died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 66, and was buried alongside his mother and father in Derby last week.
He was renowned as the man who founded Ashford’s Kent Pharmaceuticals in the 1980s, which at its peak employed more than 100 people across the country and supplied generic drugs to save the NHS money.
A memorial service was held at St Mary’s Church in Ashford town centre, and his younger brother, Ken, 61, described him as a “visionary” in the industry.
After being born in Manchester and growing up in Derby, he later moved to Stourbridge in the West Midlands, and was part of the Dixonians rugby team which won three championships in a row.
Then he moved to Kent in the 1980s where he was a product manager for a laboratory in Sheerness, before he spotted a gap in the market and founded his own business in 1987.
Mr O’Neill said: “Denis saw the opening to manufacture generic drugs rather than branded drugs. He was a pioneer of the industry and an important figure who was responsible for saving the NHS around £5 billion in costs.
“He employed lots of people in Ashford, and a lot of people are now in successful jobs as a result.”
In 2012 he sold the business he founded to a competitor as part of an estimated £58 million deal, according to The Times newspaper.
He was also an active member of the Rotary Club, through which he sponsored a village in Kenya to help 200 orphaned children, many of whom suffered with Aids.
But in 2010 he was diagnosed with Pick’s disease, an unusual form of vascular dementia which affects the frontal lobe of the brain.
Mr O’Neill added: “The sad thing is, that in our warehouse we had over 5,000 different types of drugs, but not one could help him.
“As a brother he was dearly loved. He saw opportunities where other people didn’t. He was an entrepreneur with great motivation, drive and focus.”
He leaves four children, Lucy, 38, Jazmyn, 19, Erian, 17, and Mackenzie, 11, as well as two grandchildren, Saffron, four and Marni, two.