Hovione will expand 3 pharmaceutical chemistry facilities

The Portuguese drug services firm Hovione has outlined a $170 million investment program through 2023 that it says will increase its production capacity by about 25%. In East Windsor, New Jersey, where Hovione is investing $50 million, the company will add two spray dryers, tripling capacity, and expand its capacity to make research- and small-scale quantities of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). “We are looking to build this up to a significant site for Hovione with more than 300 people,” says Jean-Luc Herbeaux, the firm’s chief operating officer. Hovione currently employs about 150 people in New Jersey. In Cork, Ireland, it will spend about $50 million to upgrade its high-potency API production and add a spray dryer. In Loures, Portugal, Hovione is spending $70 million on additions such as a new manufacturing building and an eight-lab quality control facility. These projects, some of which are already complete, will take up all the available space at the Loures site, according to CEO Guy Villax. “Last year we broke $300 million in sales,” Villax says, and the firm is targeting $400 million this year. “The company needs to be less Portuguese. You will see us invest and grow our footprint more in the US than elsewhere.”