Press Room

        PH: How is business right now? Gil: Business is going well. The CDMO industry is quite busy, not just Hovione. It comes naturally from the good environment that investors found in the biotech sector overall, so there are many programmes ongoing in development. Business is well funded, there is a lot of activity and CDMOs benefit from that. Also, large pharma continues to divest manufacturing assets. The trends of recent years remain and I think they will continue for the next months. The off-patents business is growing too. There is a lot of interest in niche, specialised APIs with specific properties from a physical standpoint. PH: What specialised technologies are you investing in? Gil: Spray drying is one of our core technologies,...   Read the full interview

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TKS, TeckoScienze Publisher, March 22, 2018

Five Minutes with Marco Gil - DCAT WEEK’18

Mar 22, 2018

Smart companies are focusing on internal training schemes to develop and mentor graduate employees. The challenge of attracting the right people in a highly competitive recruitment market is leading many organisations to consider developing their own talent from within. While formal graduate programmes are nothing new in larger organisations, such schemes are becoming more common at smaller companies. Recruitment firm Fastnet, which has offices in Cork and Dublin, has been successful at developing its own talent rather than hiring from competitors over the past 15 or 20 years, according to managing partner Niamh O’Driscoll. She said a formal graduate programme that brings people into the company at a very early stage was the next logical step. The first two graduates- one with a psychology degree and the other with a biochemistry background- have been taken on for the two year rotational programme. After six months getting to grips with all aspects of Fastnet’s business, the new hires will work in the talent acquisition division, focused initially on quality and laboratory, and then on engineering. “We have a very specific methodology and core values”, said O’ Driscoll. “The programme allows us to instil our values from the beginning and will help ensure there is a consistent pipeline of quality talent coming up”. Portuguese pharmaceutical company Hovione, which has a contract manufacturing site in Cork that employs more than 200 people, has also been looking at innovative ways of developing talent. “We’re quite a small company so we’re not going to have a huge internal mentoring or graduate recruitment programme” said human resources director Mary Hennessy. “We’ve tried to align with international programmes where we can facilitate one or two graduates.” INOV Contacto, is an EU-funded scheme that enables young Portuguese’s workers to work abroad for six months as interns in multinational companies. In Hovione’s case, the candidates typically have a master’s degree or a PHD in chemistry. “At the end of the placement it’s up to us if we want to offer a full-time position” said Hennessy. “Both of the participants so far have stayed with us and relocated to Cork as process engineers”. The company also participates in the Ibec Global Graduates Programme, taking on two people through this route each year. The 12 month programme involves six months working with the Cork team and six months based in one of the other Hovione sites in Lisbon, New Jersey or Macau. The company has gone on to hire six graduates through this programme. Read Article  

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The Sunday Times, February 18, 2018

Invest in talent to find future leaders

Feb 18, 2018

"This is a big story," says Guy Villax, CEO of the Portuguese API manufacturer Hovione. "I think the impact is going to be widespread."   Companies assess the short-term chaos and long-term promise that the campaign will have on their supply chains. When Xi Jinping came to power in China in 2013, the ambitious new general secretary claimed he would usher in an era of stricter enforcement of pollution control. Along with his highly publicized agenda to root out corruption, Xi declared that Chinese industry would be brought into line with global standards of environmental performance, significantly reducing smog and water pollution in and near major cities. Not that China . . . Read the article    

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C&EN, February 12, 2018

Drug chemical makers brace as China cracks down on pollution

Feb 12, 2018

Hovione doctoral researcher Beatriz Noriega returns to ISAB’s labs in Stockholm for her ongoing research into preclinical in vitro dissolution testing. She talks to Lab Blog about why she believes dissolution testing is critical, and how she’s hoping to prove it.   Hovione Ph.D. researcher Beatriz Noriega has been working for two years so far on her doctoral thesis, authoring four well-received posters and with two accepted for the next Respiratory Drug Delivery (RDD) Conference in April 2018. This is Beatriz’s second research visit to ISAB’s labs to use the in vitro simulation tool DissolvIt, as part of her work in the Particle Design and Inhalation Development department of Hovione’s R&D Drug Product Development. Her mission? “No matter how similar formulations may seem, until you analyze dissolution you never really know,” says Beatriz. She took time out from her research to talk to our ISAB Lab Blog.     Read the entire interview at Inhalation.se    

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LAB BLOG: Inhalation Sciences, February 8, 2018

Hovione Researcher on month-long study visit to ISAB Labs

Feb 08, 2018

Energy-efficient compressors and visualisation software have given Cork-based pharmaceutical firm Hovione more control over operating costs and energy use, writes Kenneth Lloyd. Hovione, a Cork-based pharmaceutical firm, has realised multiple benefits from leasing a high-end compressed air system under a lease agreement. The Portuguese pharmaceutical firm acquired its Cork site in 2009. It was a state-of-the-art facility although, inevitably, the company inherited some older equipment. In 2015, it was apparent that the compressed air system needed to be replaced due to inefficiencies and reliability concerns. However, the company had a preference for leasing, as opposed to buying, the equipment in this instance. It appointed compressed air solutions experts, O’Neill Industrial, to provide a new compressed air system under a lease agreement. The benefits of leasing the equipment in contrast to buying were multiple for Hovione: it has...   Read the article

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Engineers Journal, December 5, 2017

Economic and environmental benefits from energy-efficient compressed-air system

Dec 05, 2017

Frankfurt expo showcases a transformation in contract R&D and manufacturing of drug ingredients. The pharmaceutical chemical sector is experiencing a prolonged period of profitability and a wave of transformation as companies invest profits in new ventures and new capacity. A picture of how the sector is evolving came into focus last month when CPhI Worldwide, the annual pharmaceutical ingredients exhibition, came to Frankfurt. The event­—the largest of its kind in the world, attended by more than 40,000 people—followed a year and a half of robust merger and acquisition . . . Read full article  

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C&EN, November 13, 2017

Growth strategies for pharmaceutical chemical makers on display at CPhI

Nov 13, 2017

Empowering employees with a strong sense of ownership can lead to improved outcomes and increased cost efficiency. Guy Villax, CEO of Hovione agrees. As a CEO, he says, it has to be established that everyone in an organization shares responsibility for the quality of their products and that everyone must be quality-minded. Villax encourages his employees to be open and transparent and notes he’s often the first to call FDA or order investigation/root cause analysis if something goes wrong, so his teams can learn from issues and fix them. Villax says it’s important to keep patients in mind… the medicine they’re creating literally saves lives.   Read the full article

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Healthcare Packaging, September 12, 2017

Live from PDA/FDA: Culture of Quality

Sep 12, 2017

With demand soaring, drug service and other firms are challenged to keep talented scientists in the lab The analytical chemistry business is booming. Contract manufacturers have significantly expanded their analytical labs in recent years to keep pace with regulatory requirements and customer demand for data. At dedicated analytical service firms, business is growing as drug companies and customers in other industries seek out backup resources for their in-house labs and manufacturing plants. That growing demand is creating lots of analytical chemistry jobs. The sometimes-repetitive nature of the work, however, often leads chemists...    

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C&EN, June 5, 2017

Industry and academia rethink analytical chemistry

Aug 23, 2017

CMOs are embracing continuous manufacturing in several ways. Some (e.g., Patheon and Catalent) are investing directly in continuous lines that will be available to customers much like traditional lines. Other CMOs are collaborating with bio/pharma companies that have developed their own technology. In one widely reported example, Hovione is building a new suite at its East Windsor, NJ, site to house a continuous manufacturing line developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals to produce its own products. Hovione will operate the line and will be able to sell any uncommitted capacity to third-party customers. The Hovione-Vertex collaboration is an example of another way that CMOs are responding to the need for flexibility in manufacturing: developing new types of collaborations with clients. The traditional CMO business model, with multiple clients sharing the same tightly scheduled production trains, is not adaptive; it is basically a one-size-fits-all. CMOs must be more innovative in their sourcing arrangements (i.e., they must offer manufacturing arrangements that can adapt to the market response as the new product is rolled out).   Read article

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PharmTech, August 1, 2017

CMOs Must Embrace Flexible Manufacturing

Aug 01, 2017

The trend for school-leavers to prefer to automatically opt for college has resulted in a shortage of skilled workers in certain fields, warns Dr Paul Downing, Hovione general manager. “The single biggest challenge we have experienced is in the area of skills,” says Mr Downing. He says it’s believed the low number of skilled workers such as electricians, fitters, quality control analysts, instrument technicians as well as automation technicians, is a result of the fall-off in popularity of traditional Apprenticeship programmes and increased parental pressure on school-leavers to earn a degree. Yet, he points out, the traditional apprenticeship route offers all participants potentially excellent careers. "We would like to see more emphasis placed by second-level career guidance teachers on the option of apprenticeships in all of the different trades," he said, adding that the issue has become a "significant" problem in recent years. The focus of the Hovione pharmaceutical plant in Cork, at which just under 200 people are employed, is Contract Manufacturing, offering both drug substance and particle engineering capabilities and services. "Because of the shortage we are having to hire contract resources instead of being able to employ permanent staff members," Dr Downing explained. "We are trying to source laboratory technicians for example, who have become skilled through an Apprenticeship route rather than through a third level degree but it is difficult to find such personnel.   Read the full article

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Irish Examiner, 7 Jul 2017

Hovione keeps a keen focus on developing its talent pool

Jul 07, 2017

Hovione was celebrating rapid growth, evident in expansions at their New Jersey site and increased pilot capabilities in Portugal. Filipe Tomas, General Manager, explained that the New Jersey expansion adds a new commercial spray dryer, and more than doubles the site’s capacity to manufacture API and intermediates. Phase 1 will be completed in June 2017, with the next major milestone – expansion of continuous drug product manufacturing – expected in March 2018.   Read full article    

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Specialty Chemicals Magazine, May 23, 2017

Philadelphia hosts successful CPhI North America|InformEx 2017

May 23, 2017

The Hovione Cork site was acquired in 2009 and now employs over 180 highly qualified professionals who strive to deliver high levels of customer service and customer satisfaction. The Cork site is always on the lookout to acquire talented individuals who share the same beliefs and values of the company - Integrity, Honesty and Transparency. Read the entire article

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Irish Examiner, Pharma Supplement, 24 Mar 2017

Hovione Cork: A unique combination of capacity and high quality people

Mar 24, 2017

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