Hovione increases production capacity

Hovione announces plan to increase production capacity in oral dosage forms in Portugal, to strengthen the integrated offering. New commercial scale equipment for blending, tableting and coating will complement existing development small scale equipment. This decision to expand follows growing customer demand since, one year ago Hovione started offering end-to-end solutions, from drug substance to drug product, from the Loures site.

As a specialist integrated CDMO, Hovione is increasingly being chosen as a solution partner from Drug Substance to Drug Product. Hovione ‘One Site Shop’ allows customers to streamline their supply chain, reduce time to market and benefit from seamless project management. This increase in capacity will help Hovione customers to consistently bring products faster to market.

“Hovione has a unique value proposition when it comes to processing amorphous solid dispersions. Our Company has more than 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical spray drying and has produced hundreds of batches for clinical trials and commercial supplies. Our customers now see drug product manufacturing at the site where they produce their drug product intermediate as a natural extension of the range of value added services they expect from us. They want to keep their product in the same capable hands. This investment shows our commitment to listen to our customers and continue to support their evolving needs,” says Frédéric Kahn Vice-President of Marketing & Sales at Hovione.

In parallel Hovione will be completing by the end of 2018, the qualification of its continuous tableting line at Hovione New Jersey, which will enable the site to offer end-to-end solutions for US customers that are keen to keep their supply chain local.

The capacity expansion program started in 2016 and will continue in the coming five years. In the first two years, Hovione has relocated its development services to a new centre with 7.000 m2 in Lisbon, fully equipped with the most recent tools where Hovione is able to handle potent and highly potent compounds. Globally within our R&D we added new labs, new drug product centres, pilot plants and our state-of-the-art particle engineering technologies both in the US and in PT. Locally, the Loures site expanded its drug substance reaction vessel capacity with a small-scale production area and a new pilot plant. We also installed more spray drying capacity at the site and started the operation of a new drug product centre equipped with oral dosage form and inhalation manufacturing capabilities. In New Jersey, Hovione doubled the size of its development and manufacturing operations. In Cork we also expanded our chemical synthesis capacity devoted to contract manufacturing.

Overall, Hovione’s steadfast growth is the result of an integrated synergy that allows the company to serve both the global markets and also to respond to specific customers’ demands whenever necessary. At Hovione, we want to be the CDMO that customers like the most, therefore we put the customers’ needs at the centre of everything we do relying on three growth pillars: operational excellence, customer centricity and the team members’ engagement.