Press Room

The use of spray drying in the pharmaceutical industry is growing at a fast pace. The need for robust scale-up methods is essential in order to control critical quality attributes and improve powder properties during drug development. Moreover, poor scale-up is likely to lead to considerable losses of expensive materials. Process understanding and simulation is a very powerful tool to support the scale-up of spray drying processes. A scale-up methodology based on scientific principles is proposed in this study. The method is divided in two steps: thermodynamic and atomization & particle formation. The method is relatively straightforward to apply and has been tested in numerous spray-dried formulations across all production scales. An illustrative example is also shown covering the main steps of the proposed methodology. Read article here

Article
Chemistry Today, July/August 2010

Scale-up methodology for pharmaceutical spray drying

Jul 31, 2010

Counterfeit medicines are an acknowledged crisis that takes patient risk to unacceptable levels – the authors argue that this is but the visible part of the iceberg. Counterfeit APIs are the much larger submerged part of the iceberg. Counterfeit APIs are a more serious issue as it represents a threat to the integrity of the legal supply chain of medicines, it potentially impacts a much larger number of patients and European and Japanese authorities do not yet perceive it as a threat – as such they may well remain outside the scope of proposed falsified medicines legislation and enforcement objectives. The pharmaceutical industry and its supply chain appear alone at taking steps to address this criminal threat. Read article here

Article
Chemistry Today, July/August 2010 (Supplement)

Who is making the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain safe?

Jul 01, 2010

Custom manufacturers take on drug solubility issues to help pharmaceutical firms move products through development When they get together, pharmaceutical researchers call drug compounds by nicknames such as “brick dust” and “grease.” Whether compounds are crystalline rocks, lipophilic goo, or something in between, getting them to be water soluble can be a major hurdle for making therapies bioavailable in the body. If the bioavailability is low, meaning only a fraction of a dose gets into circulation, even the best molecule can fail as a drug. About 40% of marketed drugs are thought to be poorly water soluble. Development efforts might have to be redoubled, however, because between 70 and 90% of drug candidates in the pipeline are believed to have low solubility. In fact, solving solubility problems is considered to be the leading challenge in drug development. Read article here

Article
C&EN, 31 May, 2010

Finding Solutions

May 31, 2010

Drug manufacturer Hovione has opened a new spray drying facility in Loures, Portugal, for potent active ingredients. Marco Marques, head of production, describes the safety protocols. Pharmaceutical contract manufacturer Hovione has recently received a significant number of new spray drying projects with special containment requirements. The company’s answer to this market demand has been to install a new spray dryer unit in a dedicated manufacturing suite at its site in Loures, Portugal. The facility design allows the handling of potent compounds up to class III, according to independent health & safety consultant SafeBridge, and it complies fully with good manufacturing practices (GMP) as required by international drug authorisation bodies. Read full article

Article
Cleanroom Technology, May 2010

Handling potent drug materials

May 31, 2010

Advances in drug formulation and inhalation device design are creating new opportunities for inhaled drug delivery as an alternative to oral and parenteral delivery methods. Much of the interest in pulmonary delivery of systemic drug therapies is focused on chronic diseases and refractory conditions, ailments that require frequent drug administration for a protracted period of time. Read article here

Article
Drug Delivery Technology, April 2010

Inhalation: Going Beyond Asthma. Interview: Peter Villax and Jason Suggett

Apr 30, 2010

“It is much harder to be in this business today than it was five or 10 years ago,” admits Hovione Chief Executive Officer Guy Villax. Although Villax believes that having a clear strategy is increasingly fundamental to success, he admits that “it’s quite tough and requires much better thinking to come up with the value proposition that you present to your customers.” Read article here

Article
C&EN, 8 February, 2010

Custom Chemicals. After struggling through 2009, contract manufacturers are honing their strategies and hoping for a better 2010

Feb 08, 2010

Welcome speech by Guy Villax, Chief Executive, to the attendees of the 6th Hovione Seminar. Estoril, 17th September 2009 Ladies and Gentlemen – Good Morning and Welcome, I am delighted that you all came from far away to be here with us to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hovione. Thank you. I am so glad to see so many faces – from so many moments – recent relationships and very long standing ones. Only a moment ago Gerold Stamm was telling me my father supplied him with doxycycline in 1979. In 2007, I was a witness before a sub-committee of Congress and I said that for 40 years I had had a front seat watching the growth and evolution of the pharmaceutical industry. There have been endless changes, but what I feel is most important is to do with people. For a long time careers would last a shorter time than the lives of companies, today it is the other way around. Most careers last far longer than companies. Among many stories that shaped Hovione, the one about us supplying Agouron with Viracept stands out as a good example. When the original 10 tons per year forecast became a 100 ton per year challenge, Hovione rose to the occasion. We were trusted to do the impossible, we committed to do our best, and together we came though and delivered a $500m sales product in the 1st year. Agouron was so successful it was bought by Warner Lambert, then by Pfizer. But still today many of the people that worked with us then to do the impossible -and made sure the market was never short of product- are now working in many other biotechs across California and they have great memories of what collaborations can achieve. The Agouron story was -to me- the first evidence that the outsourcing model not only worked, reduced risk and cost but that it was also robust and able to meet the toughest challenge. Viracept at some stage mobilised 1000m3 of reactor capacity. So business is about networks, people that trust each other and work together to achieve great things. Second listening to customers is not easy. In addition to listening carefully one has to really understand the client’s context. Unless we are familiar with the driving forces that shape decisions within a customer we will never be able to be proactive and truly become aligned with it. The most challenging aspect of the future way of working in the pharmaceutical industry is how to work collaboratively. The “procurement” model will soon be dead because the Parma Industry is now facing for the first time ever strong Darwinian pressures. The need to survive will drive evolution and only the fittest will succeed, the issue here is not being the best among equals – the winner will be of a new shape, working in a new way. But it takes two to tango, so a new shape of supplier to emerge we need a new shape of customer. Third – again people, people make things happen. At the top big decisions get taken, but the outcome is to do with execution, Getting it done, right first time – every time is a matter for everyone in the company – and it is especially at the operations level, whether in the lab or operating reactors, that actions are taken that result in good yields or not, in deviations or not, in surprises – better good than bad. You can only procedurise so far, you need to count on the human side – to do this you need great people. This does not happen by chance, it is not determined by culture, or nationality, or even by education – it is a matter of leadership, of somehow providing everyone in the company with a sense of belonging, making work meaningful. Nothing gives our work more sense than when we are told what our products do for patients. Yesterday a customer told me he has a desk full of letters from parents of children that suffer from cystic fibriosis. This is a terrible illness, these kids probably never had a good night’s sleep in their life. Peter was telling me that after 3 weeks on the new drug, they sleep – their life is changed. Hovione is part of that effort, this is why we are here. There are many people that should be mentioned as key in our first 50 years. Whether as customers giving us business and opportunities to make a difference, or as team members developing the solutions and manufacturing the products. The way we will show our appreciation is by focusing on the work ahead, making sure Hovione continues to do a good job. Thank you Guy Villax Chief Executive Hovione

Article
The event that marked the start of the celebrations of Hovione's 50th anniversary.

Welcome speech by Guy Villax at the 6th Hovione Seminar

Sep 17, 2009

Portuguese fine chemicals firm targets big pharma with a plant acquired from Pfizer April 8 was a big day for Hovione, the Portuguese pharmaceutical chemical manufacturer. The family-owned firm, based in the Lisbon suburb of Loures, marked its 50th anniversary and closed on the purchase of a Pfizer chemical plant in Cork, Ireland. Until recently, this plant manufactured the active ingredient in Lipitor, the top-selling drug in the world. Read article here

Article
C&EN, 8 June, 2009

At 50, Hovione Takes A Big Step

Jun 08, 2009

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