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News / Jul 18, 2022

Communication of Site Shutdown - Hovione Macau

News release, 18 July 2022

Manufacturing Plant in Macau, China | Hovione

On July 9th, 2022, the Government of the Special Administrative Region of Macau issued the Executive Order No. 115/2022 ordering all industries and commercial businesses located in Macau to suspend operations and shut down from July 11th to July 18th as an extraordinary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the community. In accordance with the executive order, the majority of businesses located in Macau are obliged to shut down from 00:00 on July 11th, 2022 to 00:00 on July 23rd, 2022, including Hovione's manufacturing facility located in the territory. 

 

Since the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, Hovione has been employing procedures and rules to reduce and minimize the impact of forced shutdowns and closures to our manufacturing facilities. Although the temporary suspension of our activities in Macau is beyond the reasonable control of Hovione and mandated by the local government, we will continue to employ all measures to reduce and mitigate the impact of such Interruption on our activities, our customers and partners. 

 

Some of the measures employed at this facility include building up safety stocks of raw materials and finished API, advancing shipment dispatch dates to those clients facing the highest risk of disruption, leveraging bonded warehouses to allow for continued supply of materials, among others. 

 

We commit to immediately notifying you if there are any foreseeable disruptions that may impact your product. Should you have any questions feel free to reach out to your account manager who will be happy to support you. 

 

In the meantime, we will continue to make safe our place of work in order to continue serving our clients and our communities the best we can as we are In it for life. 

 

 
  
 

About Hovione
Hovione is an international company with over 60 years of experience as a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) and is currently a fully integrated supplier offering services for drug substance, drug product intermediate and drug product. With four FDA inspected sites in the USA, China, Ireland, and Portugal and development laboratories in Lisbon, Portugal and New Jersey, USA, the company provides branded pharmaceutical customers services for the development and compliant manufacture of innovative drugs including highly potent compounds and customized product solutions across the entire drug life cycle. In the inhalation area, Hovione offers a complete range of and services, from API, formulation development and devices. Hovione was the first Chemical/ Pharmaceutical Company to become a Certified B Corp, is a member of Rx-360, EFCG and participates actively in industry quality improvement initiatives to lead new global industry standards.

 

 
  

Find more about our site, Hovione Macau

 

 

 

 

 

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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  

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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  

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US-base manufacturing and the continued rise of peptides were among the key themes for CDMOs at CPHI Frankfurt 2025. Andrew Warmington reports. Hovione announced during this show that it has completed an initial $100 million investment phase in the expansion of its manufacturing footprint in East Windsor, New Jersey. The company was one of the first European CDMOs to set up in the US back in 2002. CEO Jean-Luc Herbeaux said that when he took over the role four years ago, Hovione's footprint in the US was limited and the site was reaching capacity limitations. (...) Read the full article on SpecChemOnline.com  

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