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Press Clipping / Dec 10, 2018

Life Sciences: Hovione increases production capacity while looking forward to its tenth year in Cork

Irish Examiner, December 10, 2018

2019 will be a very significant year for Hovione the contract pharmaceutical manufacturing company which helps bring new and off-patent drugs to market celebrates 10 years Irish-side.

Hovione which took over Pfizer’s former Loughbeg site in Ringaskiddy in 2009 has seen rapid growth over the last 10 years.

The company employs over 200 people in Cork and hundreds more at its other three sites spread over three continents with facilities in Lisbon (Portugal), Macau (China), New Jersey (USA).

Hovione has over 55 years of experience in the development and compliant manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Drug Product Intermediates.

The Cork plant plays a significant and strategic role within the Hovione network and that was certainly proven earlier this year when Hovione expanded its production capacity.

Having recommissioned a third production building at their site in Ringaskiddy Hovione went into production at this building in May of this year.

“This is the first time in Cork’s history that all three buildings have been running at the same time”, said General Manager Paul Downing who said it is an exciting time in the company’s history as Hovione Cork now have extensive manufacturing capacity with two Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient facilities alongside a Drug Product Intermediate facility that houses the largest, commercial pharmaceutical spray dryer in operation.

Dr Downing said he is optimistic about the future.

2019 he said is going to be a really big year for Hovione Worldwide as it celebrates its 60th Anniversary. 

The company was founded by Ivan Villax with his wife Diane Villax in Lisbon in Portugal in 1959.

“We have a very ambitious plan to be the Number 1 innovative, integrated pharmaceutical solution provider to the global pharmaceutical industry by 2028,” said Dr Downing. 


Our mission is to passionately turn any challenge into a solution by collaboration with our partners to develop great medicines.


"That is a company corporate goal so that requires all our facilities to grow and expand so this expansion plan is across the whole Hovione network including Lisbon, New Jersey, Macau and also obviously Cork.

“In short we give our customers what they cannot find elsewhere”, says Dr. Downing, who explains that the company’s customers come from the sectors of biotechnology, medium, speciality and large pharmaceuticals as well as generics pharmaceuticals.

“Hovione has a unique value proposition. We have more than 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical spray drying and have produced hundreds of batches for clinical trials and commercial supplies.

“We have a very diverse workforce. We currently have 15 nationalities onsite here in Cork. 

"Hovione is a fast, challenging dynamic environment and there are great opportunities for people with all skill sets at whatever age.

“Because the market demands different products you can work on multiple products and multiple projects at the same time. That gives people a diversity of experience. 

"We like to have a balance between promoting from within and recruiting from outside so therefore if someone has the desire to move within the organisation these opportunities arise.”

Hovione is constantly developing its talent pool and is a big supporter of and encourages apprenticeships for young people where they get an opportunity to gain very substantial and important skills allowing them to take up roles as electricians, fitters, quality control analysts, instrument technicians as well as automation technicians.

The Apprenticeship programme not only provides participants with the necessary technical and professional skills, it also provides valuable teamwork experience.

Valuable teamwork experience

“What we do find is that people can have very strong technical and academic skills but their team collaboration skills require us to invest in further training. 

"These skills would be automatically instilled in participants in the Apprenticeships programmes. 


In complex and large organisations like ourselves the interpersonal skills and an ability to work in small teams is important.


Hovione works with Skillsnet and other local academic institutions to help build capabilities that can take advantage of the many career opportunities available.

“We do College site tours and Master student placements. We work with the IDA on the IBEC EOP Programme which sees graduates spend six months with us and six months with our sister facility in Portugal mostly working as process engineers or QC analysts. 

"We hope these graduates will come and join us in our new process in Cork in 2019.

“We continue to work with the Portuguese Postdoctoral Graduate Placement Programme and with the Cork Education Training Board and this year we supported the IBEC Laboratory Apprenticeship Programme — we have the first two apprentices joining from that initiative this January in collaboration with CIT so we look forward to that as it has been a couple of years in the making.”

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 customer demands when necessary.

The company has a solid legacy of Corporate Social Responsibility — last year Hovione became a Certified B Corp – becoming the first facility in Ireland to have received this certification.

The company’s ‘Safety First, Quality Always’ culture is also something staff are very proud of - “we nurture it each day so that we do not take it for granted”.

“In the coming years we will continue to invest in additional capability and hire additional team members, launch and validate more new products”, says Dr Downing, who points out that the company is an active member of Biopharmachem Ireland, Cork Chamber as well as Business in the Community Ireland.

Hovione sponsors and supports local community initiatives as well as establishing crucial links with the academic and training institutions through its support of STEM — initiatives to encourage take-up of subjects such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics — as well as CIT Student placements and the Cork Training Centre.

Just last week, Hovione won the Corporate Citizen Responsibility Business in Community Ireland Mark.

Carbon footprint commitment

“We are one of 40 leading companies who have signed up to significantly reduce their carbon emissions between now and 2030”.

The pledge was made at a summit organised in Dublin last week by Business in the Community in Ireland, which describes itself as a network for sustainability.

“We are the first contact manufacturing organisation to win that award,” said Dr Downing. 

“We see that things like corporate social responsibility, being ethical in the workplace and within the community, reducing our carbon footprint are all important very important issues going forward.”

Hovione committed to engaging with its local communities

Hovione holds annual corporate social responsibility days and each year a particular organisation is chosen.

This year, the company supported SIMON Community — fundraising and giving practical support. Every Christmas, the company also facilitates food and gift appeals for the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

Dr Paul Downing said: “We are the first chemical / pharmaceutical company integrating this innovative community of companies that use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. 

"As a Certified B Corporation, we want to contribute to redefine success in business meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, setting out Team Members for success and personal satisfaction and aspiring to use the power of markets to solve social and environmental problems.


This is a global movement of people using business as a force for good, with a vision that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world but the best for the world.


As well as expansion in Cork, Hovione is completing by the end of 2018 the qualification of its continuous tableting line at New Jersey (USA). 

The capacity expansion program started in 2016 and will continue in the coming five years. 

Hovione has relocated its development services to a new centre with 7,000 m2 in Lisbon — fully equipped with the most recent tools to handle potent and highly potent compounds.

The Loures site expanded its drug substance reaction vessel capacity with a small-scale production area and a new pilot plant. 

The company installed more spray drying capacity at the site and started the operation of a new drug product centre equipped with oral dosage form as well as inhalation manufacturing capabilities. 

In New Jersey, Hovione has doubled the size of its development and manufacturing operations.

The decision to expand follows growing customer demand since Hovione started offering end-to-end solutions from drug substance to drug product from the Loures site in 2017.

Hovione increased production capacity in oral dosage forms in Portugal to strengthen their integrated offering. 

New commercial scale equipment for blending, tableting and coating will complement existing development small scale equipment. 

This ‘One Site Shop’ allows customers to streamline their supply chain, reduce time to market and benefit from seamless project management. 

This increase in capacity helps Hovione customers to consistently bring products to market faster.

Paul looks forward to a very exciting year ahead. 

All these successes here at home, he says, would not have been possible without the continued support of the local businesses, IDA, Biopharmachem Ireland and the staff working at the Cork facility.

 

Read the full article

 

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In an interview with Executiva, a portuguese media outlet focused on women´s leadership, Diane Villax, co-founder and long-standing leader of Hovione, reflects on her journey and the company’s development over more than six decades. Diane Villax’s career began at a time when few women worked outside the home. At 19, she joined a trading company as a foreign languages correspondent, where she developed essential business skills — including commercial correspondence, banking and export procedures — that later proved instrumental in helping her husband, Ivan Villax, establish Hovione in 1959. From its earliest days operating in the family home in Lisbon, Hovione adopted an international outlook. The company’s first major customers were in Japan, setting demanding quality standards that helped shape its long-term position in global markets. Over the following decades, Hovione expanded its footprint with the construction of its first manufacturing site in Loures (1969), followed by expansion to Macau (1986), the United States (New Jersey, early 2000s) and Ireland (Cork). The company grew into a global organization with more than 2,500 employees — including over 300 scientists — and a reputation as a preferred supplier to leading pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Throughout the interview, Diane highlights the values that have guided the company’s development: a commitment to excellence, a strong work ethic, and a focus on quality and long-term relationships. Although she did not have formal business training, she learned “on the job” and brought discipline, precision and structure to her role — particularly in the company’s early financial and administrative leadership. Now in her nineties and an active member of Hovione’s Board of Directors, Diane Villax remains engaged with the company’s evolution and governance, reflecting a continued commitment to its long-term development. Her story reflects entrepreneurial drive, resilience and long-term leadership — and offers insight into the values that have shaped Hovione’s trajectory for more than six decades. Read the full interview at Executiva.pt (in portuguese).    

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Executiva, 23 February 2026

Hovione’s Diane Villax: “I was not brought up to be a business woman”

Feb 23, 2026

Márcio Temtem, vice president, Strategic Business Management, Hovione, addresses molecule complexity, speed, and regionalization via integrated manufacturing. The landscape of small molecule manufacturing is rapidly evolving, according to Márcio Temtem, vice president, Strategic Business Development, Hovione, who provides an expert look into how his firm is evolving their approach as the industry changes. With 17 years of experience at Hovione, a family-owned CDMO with a 66-year legacy, Temtem identifies three pivotal trends currently shaping the industry: increased complexity, accelerated development speed, and the regionalization of supply chains. Temtem observes that small molecules have grown significantly in size and complexity, often requiring multiple chemical steps and high-potency handling. This shift necessitates a specialized "toolbox" to overcome modern bioavailability challenges. Highlighting Hovione's technical approach to these hurdles, Temtem states, "We use a platform called amorphous solid dispersions, produced by spray drying to address this challenge of bioavailability.” This platform represents a core area in which Hovione maintains global leadership, utilizing innovative tools to scale processes efficiently while minimizing the use of APIs. Temtem also mentions the increased influence of AI in drug discovery and deployment, which requires CDMOs to bridge the gap from grams to tons at a much faster pace than in previous years. He further addresses the trend of regionalization, noting the rise of countries such as the US and China prioritizing regional supply chain strategies. He explains that Hovione is uniquely positioned to navigate these new challenges with supply chains through its FDA-inspected sites across three continents. Central to Hovione’s competitive advantage is their integrated manufacturing offer, which combines drug substance and drug product expertise at a single location. Temtem emphasizes the value of this model, stating, “The company… has been investing in an integrated offer, bridging the problems of chemists and formulators all at the same shop.” To support this integration, the company continues to pioneer advanced manufacturing avenues, including continuous flow for drug substances and continuous tableting for drug products. Watch the full video interview or read the transcript at PharmTech.com  

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Hovione’s Strategy for Complexity, Speed, and Regional Supply Chains

Feb 06, 2026

Hovione’s historic site in Loures has been expanded to meet demand and is now operating at full capacity. This Lisbon-based flagship company has developed innovative production techniques to serve laboratories around the world On the outskirts of Loures, in the periphery of Lisbon, a maze of multicolored pipes covers the walls of the Hovione factory. This industrial site, where signs warn of an “explosive atmosphere,” houses the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients — the core business of this company with Portuguese origins generating annual revenues of more than half a billion euros. “The products that leave here are shipped to every continent,” explains Diane Villax, the family matriarch. At 91, her voice moves effortlessly between English, French, and Portuguese — a cosmopolitan streak inseparable from the history of Hovione and the Villax family, its founders. The epic began with an exile: that of Ivan Villax in 1948. With a toothbrush in one pocket and his chemistry degree in the other, the 23-year-old anti-communist fled his native Hungary with relatives hunted by the Soviet regime. After a stop in Clermont-Ferrand, he dropped anchor in Lisbon, where he met Diane, from a family of sugar industrialists. One year after their marriage, they co-founded Hovione in 1959 with two other Hungarian refugees. The early days were artisanal: the company’s laboratory was located in the basement of the family home. “One of my earliest childhood memories is of adults in white lab coats. I knew how to use a fire extinguisher at six!” smiles Peter Villax, son of Ivan and Diane, who worked for Hovione for more than thirty years. Very early on, the duo expanded internationally, notably into Japan. The 1980s were prosperous years: growth surged at 20% annually. Then transformation accelerated with the arrival of new technologies in the early 1990s. Today, “the time required to move from test tube to industrial scale has been reduced to a few weeks, compared with six months in the past,” notes Peter Villax. The American adventure Sixty-seven years after its creation, the company — now headquartered in Switzerland — employs 2,400 people. Through medicines incorporating its active ingredients, Hovione claims to treats around an estimated 80 million patients worldwide each year. The Loures site has been expanded, and production has spread to Ireland, the United States, and Macao. The cellar at 1 Travessa do Ferreiro, where the story began, is now a distant memory. Little known to the general public, Hovione is nevertheless a key link in the pharmaceutical value chain: it develops and manufactures molecules for 19 of the world’s 20 largest laboratories. Its expansion has been fueled by favorable market conditions. “Pharmaceutical manufacturers increasingly rely on outsourcing for the production of active ingredients,” notes Loïc Plantevin, a pharma specialist at Bain & Company. “Historically, major groups chose to allocate more capital to research than to manufacturing, while biotech companies — which now drive most of the market’s growth — are not designed to build factories.” Far from resting on its achievements, the company has transformed its offering. “While the founders initially focused on generic active ingredients, Hovione has evolved toward more complex molecules and formulations, produced within exclusive partnerships with its clients,” explains Jean-Luc Herbeaux, a French national and the company’s CEO since 2022. This shift reflects a deeper trend. “For several years now, active ingredients have become a more differentiated market and less sensitive to price,” adds Loïc Plantevin. “Competitiveness is now linked to know-how and advanced production technologies, which require substantial investment.” Hovione is the world champion of spray drying, a technology enabling the production of soluble powders. With the expansion of its New Jersey site, the company aims to double its U.S. capacity — a country that accounts for 60% of its sales. Despite Donald Trump’s attacks on the pharmaceutical sector, which he claims to have brought to heel by forcing price cuts, Hovione remains confident. “We are in the U.S. to grow, and that ambition goes beyond the momentum created by the American administration,” assures Jean-Luc Herbeaux. “Our customers there are asking us to help them produce in the United States over the long term.” Commitment to cutting-edge research and the search for talent are deeply rooted in the company’s DNA. “In his later years, my father collaborated with Nobel Prize–winning chemist Geoffrey Wilkinson. Together, they would go to the Hovione lab to run experiments — just ‘for fun,’ as they put it,” recalls Peter Villax. The group is the largest employer of PhD students in Portugal and has forged partnerships with several national universities. “In some ways, Hovione resembles a university,” he continues. “Despite the sensitive nature of our technologies, we publish many academic research papers.” In search of lost sovereignty To preserve cohesion, the Villax family adheres to strict governance. “Unlike many Portuguese family businesses, most members of the third generation do not work in the company,” notes Duarte Pitta Ferraz of consulting firm Ivens in Porto. “Several independent directors sit on the board. The family’s role is to define values and long-term vision, not to manage day-to-day operations.” This responsibility is fully embraced by Jean-Luc Herbeaux. Since joining the group in 2020 as chief operating officer, sales have doubled. “My priority was to refocus the group,” says the engineer, who previously worked for German chemical giant Evonik. “We developed spray drying, invested in a new tablet-manufacturing process, and increased production speed through a new model that allows our clients to access all our services at a single industrial site.” A member of the European Fine Chemicals Group (EFCG), Hovione is actively defending European pharmaceutical manufacturing — a sector under strain. According to a study by the French Union of Organic Chemical Synthesis Industries (Sicos), Europe’s share of global active ingredient production has fallen from 48% to 30% in ten years, to the benefit of India and China. The reasons include production cost gaps — raw materials, energy — as well as the burden of European administrative and regulatory procedures, explains Maggie Saykali, director at the EFCG. “If we start a price war with our Asian competitors, we will not win it,” she admits. “It is better to compete on quality, innovation, and sovereignty over our value chain.” It took the Covid-19 pandemic and severe shortages for Europe to awaken. Last March, the European Commission proposed legislation on critical medicines. But the race against time has already begun. “China is increasingly using pharmaceutical ingredients as a tool of geopolitical pressure,” warns Maggie Saykali. “It is urgent to preserve European players like Hovione, focused on process innovation — which allows medicines to be produced with higher quality and greater environmental responsibility.” With a new site under construction in Seixal, on the southern bank of the Tagus River, the Lisbon star has not finished shining in the orbit of the global pharmaceutical industry.   (This is a translation from the original article)   Read the original article on lexpress.fr  

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