Press Room

2025 AIChE Annual meeting

Start
Sunday, November 02, 2025 - 17:37
End
Thursday, November 06, 2025 - 17:38
Location: Boston, United States

Meet Hovione team at the 2025 AIChE Annual Meeting and find their exciting presentations and Hovione’s latest research and innovations. The AIChE Annual Meeting is an educational forum covering a wide range of topics relevant to cutting-edge research, new technologies, and emerging growth areas in chemical engineering. We look forward to meeting academic and industry experts and exchanging knowledge.

Date: November 2

Oral communication

Title: Early Development of a Modified Release Formulation and Process for Continuous Direct Compression: A Case Study (NH10 case study) 

Presenting Author: Ricardo Sousa, Senior Scientist

3:48 PM - Room 308 (Hynes Convention Center)

Oral communication

Title: Continuous Dosing and Blending (CDB) As a Laboratory Tool to Expedite Process Development

Presenting Author: Ana Costa, Senior Scientist

4:06 PM - Room 308 (Hynes Convention Center)

Oral communication

Title: Exploring Synergies between SMEs and AI-Powered Tools in Reaction Optimization

Presenting Author: Pedro Valente, Fellow Scientist  Modeling & Rapid Prototyping

4:45 PM - Room 309 (Third Level, Hynes Convention Center)



Date: November 3

Poster

Title: GMP Flow Chemistry Platforms: A CDMO Perspective on Enabling the Next Generation of Clinical-Stage API Manufacturing

Presenting Author: Rudi Oliveira, Senior Scientist

3:30 PM - Room Exhibit Hall C (Second Level, Hynes Convention Center)

Oral communication

Title: From offline to inline: Advancing inhalation drug manufacturing with real-time particle size monitoring and solids concentration modelling

Presenting Author: Nichal Gentilal, Scientist

8:54 AM - Room 313 (Hynes Convention Center)

 

Date: November 4

Oral communication

Title: Scaling Down Fluid Bed Drying: A Comparative Study of Mini-Glatt and Consigma™-1

Presenting Author: Ricardo Sousa, Senior Scientist

4:42 PM - Room Liberty Ballroom B (2, Sheraton Boston)

Oral communication

Title: Process development & control strategies with PAT and Soft-sensors: A solvent swap case-study

Presenting Author: Pedro Valente, Fellow Scientist  Modeling & Rapid Prototyping

4:42 PM - Room 309 (Third Level, Hynes Convention Center)

Oral communication

Title: Exploring Novel Excipients in the Transition from Batch to Continuous Tableting (CT)

Presenting Author: Ana Costa, Senior Scientist

4:54 PM - Room 308 (Third Level, Hynes Convention Center)

Oral communication

Title: Safety By Design: Leveraging Data-Rich Experimentation and Process Modeling Towards a Digital Twin

Presenting Author: Rudi Oliveira, Senior Scientist

5:00 PM - Room 309 (Hynes Convention Center)

 

Hovione Team Members will also chair the following sessions:

Nov. 2

Title: Continuous Processing in Drug Product

Presenting Author: Sarang Oka, Fellow Scientist - Technology Intensification  

3:30 PM – Room 308 (Hynes Convention Center)

Nov. 3

Title: Particle Characterization            

Presenting Author: Sarang Oka, Fellow Scientist - Technology Intensification 

8:00 AM - Room Independence Ballroom West

Nov. 3

Title: Advances in Smart Monitoring, Optimization and Control of Process Manufacturing

Presenting Author: Ankita Naik, Modeling and PAT Scientist

8:00 AM - Room 304 (Hynes Convention Center)

 

Contact our experts today to find out more about the work we are doing to support our customers’ projects, solving complex challenges, and bringing needed therapies to life.

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A mechanical engineering graduate, this Frenchman is the CEO of the Portuguese pharmaceutical contract manufacturer Hovione. Still owned by the founding family, the company was awarded the 2025 ‘Léonardo de Vinci’ Prize, which recognizes the innovative and successful succession planning of family businesses. With an international career behind him, Jean-Luc Herbeaux is almost more fluent in English than in his native language. At 58, this Frenchman with iceberg-blue eyes is the CEO of Hovione. Founded in the late 1950s, this Portuguese group, with 100% family ownership, has just received the ‘Léonardo de Vinci’ Prize, which highlights entrepreneurial successes tinged with family legacy. While this mid-sized company with a turnover of €500 million maintains a low profile, its pharmaceutical contract manufacturing business is just as obscure to the general public. "Yet, the market for contract manufacturers, or 'contract development manufacturing organizations,' is worth $200 billion", emphasizes the CEO, who has been working in this microcosm for two decades. 500 patents Aware of the stakes, he does not deny "the pharma industry's dependence on Indian and Chinese capabilities". "The fact remains that the trend is toward the regionalization of supply chains, with European manufacturers producing for the Old Continent, American manufacturers for their own market, and so on", he says. And to highlight the foresight of Diane and Ivan Villax, the founding couple, "who thought globally from the very beginning". As a result, the group, with its 500 patents, has factories in China, the United States, and Ireland, without neglecting its home territory. This is evident by the site currently under construction on the banks of the Tagus River, following a €200 million investment. "The heavy engineering and compliance aspects are being finalized, "he explains, emphasizing that this highly regulated sector "is under a microscope". He knows this all too well, as Hovione claims to be involved in 5 to 10% of the drugs approved each year by the FDA, the American drug regulatory agency. Professor from Houston to Japan “In this small world, having a good image is important: this is the case with Jean-Luc, passionate about his work, but who knows how to demystify things”, observes Elie Vannier, former chairman of the board of Hovione. He adds that having an international profile is a strength “in this ecosystem where talent and clients are international”. For his part, Jean-Luc retains from his numerous flights “a taste for films of all genres and from all countries”. The son of an administrative employee in secondary schools and an auto insurance expert, the youngest of three children moved around according to his parents' job transfers. He was born in Meaux, grew up in Chartres, and attended the University of Technology of Compiègne, “which already offered programs abroad”. Thus, he left a mechanical engineering internship at a Dior perfume factory to join the University of Houston in Texas, "carrying a 20 kg backpack". Despite his then-limited command of English, he earned a doctorate, became a professor, and met an American woman who would become his wife and the mother of their two children. Next came the University of Kanazawa in Japan. Alas! Disappointed by the academic world, "where you have to fight to get resources", he succumbed to the allure of industry and joined the American chemical company Rohm and Haas, which had fallen under the control of the German company Evonik. 80 million patients He spent twenty years there, in Germany and Singapore, before "accepting the offers from headhunters". He then accepted Hovione's offer, who appointed him Chief Operating Officer in 2020, then CEO two years later, making him the first CEO not from the founding family. The family remains the sole shareholder, which earned the company the ‘Léonardo de Vinci’ Prize, created by the Association Les Hénokiens and the Clos Lucé. Having settled near Lisbon, he substituted walking for combat sports, "having been burned by the injuries of some friends". He also mentioned that Hovione, whose clients include 19 of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, helps treat more than 80 million patients.   (Translated version)   Read the original and full article in French on LesEchos.fr  

Article

Jean-Luc Herbeaux aims to boost the growth of the pharmaceutical group Hovione

Dec 02, 2025

The CDMO’s New Jersey manufacturing site expansion will eventually cover more than 200,000 square feet. Portugal-based contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Hovione has completed an initial $100 million investment round in its East Windsor, New Jersey site. Once completed it will increase the facility’s footprint to more than 200,000 square feet and more than double its capacity for spray drying. Hovione CEO Jean-Luc Herbeaux said: “Since launching our New Jersey operations in 2002, Hovione has been one of the longest established European CDMOs in the United States. “This investment reinforces Hovione’s leadership in spray drying – a core technology platform where we have built extensive know-how and capabilities. By continuing to advance our platforms and expand capacity in the US, we are strengthening the foundation that enables our partners to bring complex medicines to patients more efficiently.” Spray drying is an increasingly important particle engineering technology for improving drug bioavailability through the amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) that can address bioavailability or crystallisation challenges. The initial phase of Hovione’s expansion will include a 31,000-square-foot building to house two size-3 spray dryers (PSD-3) designed for ASD production. Construction at the New Jersey site is already underway and the company plans to start GMP operations in the second quarter of 2026. The initiative is part of Hovione’s long-term strategy to grow its US operations and enhance its integrated drug substance, drug product intermediate and drug product capabilities. Herbeaux said: “This investment addresses growing customer demand for US-based capacity and integrated solutions that shorten development timelines and reduce tech transfer complexity. By consolidating development, scale-up, and commercial manufacturing within a single quality and governance framework, we provide customers with seamless execution from drug substance to drug product.” The company’s New Jersey expansion fits into its wider international growth plan that also includes capacity investments in Ireland and Portugal as it seeks to create a network of autonomous sites spanning the development and commercialisation of APIs, drug product intermediates and drug products.   Read the full article at EuropeanPharmaceuticalReview.com  

Press Clipping

Hovione doubles spray drying capacity with $100m US investment round

Nov 04, 2025