Continuous drug production advances

The pharma services firm Hovione will operate a commercial-scale continuous manufacturing facility to make finished drugs for Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The agreement adds to a $24 million project to double capacity at Hovione’s site in East Windsor, N.J. When completed by the end of 2017, the new facility will link all the steps to produce tableted drugs: blending, wet or dry granulation, fluid bed drying, tableting, coating, and real-time release testing. Hovione will offer any spare capacity to other clients.