Hovione, a leader in spray drying and particle engineering, is expanding its industrial facilities around the world to support its growth objectives. The company has been on an expansion track since 2016 in Portugal, Ireland and New Jersey with the aim of continuing to increase its capacity and capabilities to address customer needs.
The announcement of a $170 million investment in Hovione units in Portugal, Ireland, and New Jersey, leading to a global capacity increase of approximately 25%, was made at CPhI Wordwide, in Milan, by Guy Villax, CEO, and Jean-Luc Herbeaux, COO.
These investments will be used to support growth in the company′s pharma custom development and manufacturing service business, fueled by strongly growing demand for Hovione′s integrated and differentiated services in drug substance manufacturing, particle engineering and most recently drug product manufacturing. The expansion will go hand-in-hand with a build-up of Hovione′s global team with the creation of more than 300 new jobs globally. This strategy will allow the company to continue to address difficult-to-meet client needs while reinforcing its commitment to the Hovione values and standard of quality.
In the USA, Hovione will add a 2900m2 building next to its current facility in East Windsor, New Jersey, laying the foundations for a state-of-the-art Hovione Campus. The upcoming cycle of investment will bring additional commercial spray drying capacity online by 2023. Further investments will follow with the aim to solidify the company′s integrated offer: API - Particle - Drug Product in the region. This expansion will allow Hovione to accompany existing and new customers favoring US-based manufacturing through their development cycles all the way to commercial.
The capacity and capabilities of Hovione′s Cork site in the Republic of Ireland will also be upgraded to enable the production of Highly Potent Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPAPI) and to facilitate onboarding of Drug Substance Manufacturing projects of all sizes. The investment will create an ecosystem in which large customer projects with unique technologies can find a home by connecting to the existing infrastructure and equipment. The site will also receive a new commercial size spray dryer to support the growing demand for particle engineering services.
In Portugal, Hovione is ready to start operations of its most recent facility with an increase in chemical synthesis capacity for High Potency Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPAPI). The building is also prepared to receive a new commercial spray dryer to respond to the future needs of the global drug market.
“Hovione is in it for life and what better way to manifest this than through expansion of our global capacity and capabilities. Our sustainable organic growth strategy will allow us to keep true to those values that have been guiding us for more than 60 years”, says Guy Villax, Chief Executive Officer.
“These investments reinforce our integrated specialized offer globally, providing our clients with a line of sight for their projects. Focus is placed on facilitating and speeding up the drug development cycle and launch, by providing API manufacturing, Particle Engineering and Tableting services in each site. Our strategy continues to be to grow organically via investments in our existing sites, which are designed for purpose. This reduces the complexity associated with the growth journey and allows us to focus our management attention on what counts most, i.e. guaranteeing that our clients go to market with quality, safe and effective medicines for their patients” says Jean-Luc Herbeaux, Hovione’s chief operation officer.