Press Room

Loures, Portugal, October 8, 2007 – Hovione announces that its Technology Transfer Centre (TTC) has been accepted for Star participation to the Voluntary Protection Program by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration – OSHA. The VPP Star plaque and Flag presentation ceremony will take place next 11th October in East Windsor, New Jersey at 3pm. At present, only 44 sites in New Jersey have obtained the VPP Star designation. Just to apply, the facilities need to have a minimum of 3 years of unblemished track record. The TTC started operations in 2001 and OSHA accepted our application less than 12 months after it was first submitted. This shows the commitment to worker safety and health that has existed at the TTC since its inception. Guy Villax, Hovione CEO said: “I am very proud of the achievement of my colleagues. This award takes our TTC to the next level, it is a status that the Team in New Jersey will have to work hard to maintain. Continuing to deserve this is central to building our company culture. Safe operations are the result of good management and dedicated people. This is what gets customers to come back for more. I think it is terrific that, just like all our other sites, the TTC in New Jersey continues the Hovione tradition of collecting awards for doing important things well - well done!”. Working with industry and labor, the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration created the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) in 1980 to recognize and partner with worksites that implement exceptional systems to manage worker safety and health. The management and employees at these sites voluntarily implement comprehensive safety & health management systems - that go far beyond basic compliance with OSHA regulations. The VPP process emphasizes holding managers accountable for worker safety & health through measurable goals, the continual identification and elimination of hazards and the active involvement of employees in their own protection. The process places significant reliance on the cooperation and trust inherent in a partnership. Sites choosing to apply for VPP recognition show their commitment to effective worker protection by inviting government regulators into their workplace. In return, OSHA removes them from programmed inspections and does not issue citations for violations that are promptly corrected. About Hovione Hovione is an international group specializing in the development and compliant production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), serving exclusively the pharmaceutical industry. With FDA inspected plants in Europe and the Far East and a Technology Transfer Center in New Jersey, Hovione is committed to the highest levels of service and quality. Specializing in complex chemistry, Hovione offers services related to the development and manufacture of either a new chemical entity (NCE) for an exclusive contract manufacturing partner or an existing API for an off-patent product.

Press Release

Hovione in New Jersey awarded VPP Star status by OSHA

Oct 08, 2007

Sales reach USD 93.7 million (EUR 70,2 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31st 2007 Loures, Portugal, July 31st - Hovione announced today that the consolidated sales for the fiscal year ended March 31st 2007 amounted to USD 93.7M, representing a growth of 16% over the previous year. According to Hovione’s CEO, Guy Villax, “This was a year of strong sales growth despite the continued strengthening of the Euro. The main contribution to this growth came from the business segments in which Hovione has been strategically investing over the last few years. We have recently developed two new business segments: particle design services and formulation development services for inhalation – both technically challenging areas that have limited offer in the market.” In 2006 Hovione invested approximately USD 12M in R&D, with 140 people working in R&D both in lab and pilot-scale. Hovione supported pharmaceutical research in Europe and in the USA, custom synthesizing the development of more than 40 different pharmaceutical ingredients used in clinical trials all over the world. Over the last 12 months, 7 new patent applications were filed as a result of the research conducted at Hovione. Geographically, Hovione’s sales in the USA market represented 46% of our total sales (43% in 2005), Europe 30% (29%), Japan 15% (18%) and ROW 5% (5%). “We face 2007 with optimism. Our goal for this year is very clear – surpass USD 100M. I am confident that we can reach this goal!”, adds Guy Villax.   About Hovione Hovione is a world-class company dedicated to the process development and compliant manufacture of APIs for the Pharmaceutical Industry. With a 48-year track record in process development, quality standard and advanced particle design technologies, Hovione offers APIs for all drug delivery systems, from oral to injectable and from inhalation to topical applications. With FDA inspected plants in Europe and the Far East and a Technology Transfer Centre in New Jersey, no manufacturing partner is better positioned to support API development from gram scale to commercialization.

Press Release

Hovione’s sales grow 16%

Aug 03, 2007

The legal basis for APIs for the EU market to be manufactured under GMP — a requirement already in place in the US since the 1970s — was created through a directive adopted in March 2004. Health authorities in the EU are now gradually increasing their enforcement efforts and are training their inspectors to check for GMP compliance of APIs used in medicines marketed in the EU. In November 2006, a majority in the EU Parliament voted in favour of an important ‘Written Declaration’ that proposes that only GMP-certified APIs will be allowed in EU medicines. The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Committee (APIC) — a sector...

Article
Pharmaceutical Technology Europe, June 2007

Enforcing GMP compliance for APIs in EU medicines

Jun 01, 2007

Better compliance with good manufacturing practice (GMP) has resulted from the efforts by the European Fine Chemicals Group (EFCG), according to Hovione’s chief executive officer Guy Villax. But the group is still worried about the quality of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) made outside Europe for European consumption, he says, and a greater deterrent effect is still needed to maintain progress. Speaking to Generics bulletin, Villax says he is convinced that APIs...

Article
Generics Bulletin, 27 April, 2007

Good Manufacturing Practice. Europe scrutinises imported API quality

Apr 27, 2007

Fine chemical companies add value through the characterization and control of the solid state Fine chemical companies add value through the characterization and control of the solid state. Although yield and purity have always been the first concerns of contractors manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients, a small but growing contingent is giving closer attention to issues such as particle size, crystal habit and polymorphism. These and other characteristics of the solid state have typically been left to formulators, but companies such as Hovione, SAFC, Pfanstiehl and Aptuit see an opportunity to add value and differentiate themselves. Small features have large consequences

Article
ICIS Chemical Business Americas, 8 April 2007

The small stuff

Apr 08, 2007

Hovione Licenses Inhaler Technology for Influenza Drug to Sankyo & Biota Hovione recently announced the signature of an agreement in which Sankyo Company Ldt. and Biota Holding Ltd. have jointly licensed Hovione's dry powder inhaler technology for the delivery of long-acting neuraminidase inhibitors (LANI) owned by Sankyo and Biota, which are active against the influenza virus. Drug Delivery Technology, vol. 7, no. 4

Article
Drug Delivery Technology, April 2007

Hovione Licenses Inhaler Technology to Sankyo & Biota

Apr 01, 2007

At the turn of the century, chemical giants spent about $3 billion in two years buying up pharmaceutical fine chemical specialists. This was part of a wider restructuring that added up to $14 billion of M&A activity between 1998–2000 in fine chemicals. Certainly in the last decade there have been three major waves of restructuring: Pharma giants increasing their market share through mergers while shedding chemical operations. The emergence of “new”chemical companies such as Avecia, Ciba, Clariant, Degussa, Rhodia and Solutia. Traditional companies radically restructuring or simply disappearing. Leading consultants and financial analysts succeeded in convincing these companies that pharmaceutical fine chemicals would be a high growth, high margin, noncyclical sector with synergies with their existing businesses. Quel désastre.   Talking Point    

Article
Pharmaceutical Technology Europe, January 2007

The survival of the fittest. Where have great European brands gone?

Jan 01, 2007

The terrible news of the Chernobyl accident reached me when I was staying at the Peace hotel, this was in April 1986 and it was my first time in Shanghai. In those days little had changed in that City since the Japanese occupation and the Communist take-over. Once this Paris of the Orient had the second tallest skyscrapers in the World, now it was drab, poor and faded - even the players in the hotel's famous Jazz Band had not changed their Glenn Miller tunes and their white hair somehow had remained black. Continue reading Letter from China by Guy Villax    

Article
Guy Villax, 6 November 2006

Letter from China

Nov 06, 2006

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