Press Room

Press Release / Jan 17, 2023

Hovione is recognized as a Top Employer 2023

This certification is a recognition of Hovione´s resolve to put people first, and a validation that the investment in HR excellence is delivering.

Hovione wins TOP EMPLOYER 2023 award for USA, Ireland and Portugal | Hovione

January 17, 2023, the companies certified as 2023 Top Employers have just been announced and Hovione has been recognized as Top Employer in Portugal, the United States of America and Ireland, geographies that encompass 90% of Hovione´s employee population. The Hovione site in Macau was purposely not included in the evaluation due to COVID-related restrictions.  

 

This certification is a recognition of Hovione´s resolve to put people first, and a validation that the investment in HR excellence is delivering. Hovione’s People Strategy roadmap is focused on attracting and retaining the best to support the company´s business ambitions, and on providing employees and managers with a positive and rewarding work experience.

 

The Top Employers Institute program certifies organizations based on the participation and results of their HR Best Practices Survey. This survey covers six domains covering 20 topics including People Strategy, Work Environment, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Wellbeing, amongst others.

 

"Receiving this certification is a great motivator for the entire organization and most particularly for our HR Team which has been focusing on establishing best practices and on delivering on our people agenda. It is the confirmation that, as an organization, we are on the right path to make the difference. We understand that while we are not yet excellent in all dimensions, we are committed to maintaining a process of continuous improvement, by putting our people at the center of everything we do, always!" - commented Ilda Ventura, Vice-President for Human Resources and Member of the Management Board at Hovione.

 

Portugal

Catarina Tendeiro, HR Senior Director for Portugal, highlights that “We are delighted to be recognized as a Top Employer. Hovione employees are our greatest asset and to know that our programs and culture meet such a high standard is illustrative of our commitment to the team. We strive to be an employer of choice through competitive pay, meaningful work, and an attractive company culture. At Hovione Portugal, our primary focus has been on attracting and retaining talent to develop our leadership capabilities. Over the last years we have increased pay levels and most recently, provided a special inflation bonus to counter the impact of inflation on our employees. These are just a few examples of how we put our employees in the center of what we do.” 

This recognition comes after Hovione received the Randstad Employer Brand Award 2022 as the most attractive company to work for in Portugal in Healthcare, ranking 5th nationally across industries.

 

 

Ireland
For Imelda Cummins, HR Director for Hovione Ireland, “This recognition underlines our belief that our people are our strongest asset and competitive advantage. At Hovione Ireland we work consistently to ensure competitive compensation and benefits, invest in the creation of a healthy work environment, promote regular wellbeing initiatives and most importantly, to improve, we listen!”

 

 

United States of America
Beth Swiezkowski, HR Senior Director for Hovione in New Jersey adds, “We are delighted to be recognized as a Top Employer. Hovione employees are our greatest asset and to know that our programs and culture meet such a high standard is illustrative of our commitment to the team. We strive to be an employer of choice through competitive pay, meaningful work, and an attractive company culture. Over the last year we have increased pay levels and most recently, provided a special inflation bonus to counter the impact of inflation on our employees. We focused on employee well-being and engaged experts to deliver programs on managing stress, nutrition, and healthy eating and provided free healthy snacks daily. A paid full week shutdown was also added to our holiday schedule to ensure employees had time to relax and rest with their families at the end of the year. These are just a few examples of how we put our employees in the center of what we do.”

 

 

 

About Hovione
Hovione is an international company with over 60 years of experience as a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with a fully integrated offering of services for drug substance, drug product intermediate and drug product. The company has four FDA inspected sites in the USA, Portugal, Ireland and China as well as development laboratories in Lisbon, Portugal and New Jersey, USA. Hovione provides pharmaceutical customers services for the development and compliant manufacture of innovative drugs, including highly potent compounds, and customized product solution across the entire drug life cycle. In the inhalation area, Hovione offers a complete range of services, from API, formulation development and devices. Hovione´s culture is based on innovation, quality and delivery. 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.

 
About Top Employers Institute
Top Employers Institute is the global authority on recognising excellence in People Practices. They help accelerate these practices to enrich the world of work. Through the Top Employers Institute Certification Programme, participating companies can be validated, certified, and recognised as an employer of choice. Established over 30 years ago, Top Employers Institute has certified 2052 organisations in 121 countries/regions. These certified Top Employers positively impact the lives of over 9.5 million employees globally. 

 

 

 

Also in the Press Room

See All

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