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Hovione is a Portuguese company with over 50 years’ experience in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and Intermediate Drug Product development and compliant manufacture. With FDA inspected sites in the USA, Portugal, Ireland and China. The Company provides a number of products and services to the pharmaceutical industry including separate or integrated API, pre-formulated compounds, particle design, formulation development and manufacturing. It is also present in the inhalation area.

History


Hovione was founded in Portugal in 1959 by three Hungarians, Horty, Villax and Onody, who together constituted Hovione´s name. Its main founder and chemist, Ivan Villax, was primarily involved in the research of semi-synthetic tetracyclines (antibiotics) and anti-inflammatory corticosteroids. The success of the research, financed in part by royalties derived from the licensing of existing patents to multinationals, and from small-scale production and export, brought about Hovione’s first major turning point: in 1969, the first factory was commissioned and built in Loures, Portugal. With this new manufacturing unit, Hovione was able to increase and ascertain its position as a player in the worldwide market of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (APIs). From the very start, two factors distinguished our products: technological content and quality in manufacture. Being very much research oriented, the company concentrated on products that were difficult to make.

Hovione continues to be a privately-held company with 5 plants - in Portugal (1969), Macao (1986), New Jersey (2001), Taizhou in mainland China (2008) and Cork, Ireland (2009) - have a total reactor capacity of 1300 m³ and 1100 people worldwide. Since Hovione started operations in 1959, the company has patented more than 100 innovative chemical processes and produced industrially over 45 different APIs. All Hovione sites have been successfully inspected either by FDA, European medicines agency or the PMDA Japanese agency.

Hovione is a major source of semi-synthetic tetracyclines and corticosteroids, and is the largest independent supplier of contrast agents – these three families of compounds make up most of its generic product portfolio. The other half of the business focuses on exclusive projects :


 * Development and manufacture of innovator APIs
 * Particle Design: manipulations of physical properties of APIs, polymeric encapsulation
 * Development of formulations for pulmonary delivery

Research and development
Hovione invested an estimated $12.7 million in research and development (R&D) in 2005, equal to around 15 per cent of sales in 2005. The Portuguese company claimed to be the pharmaceutical producer with the highest R&D investment in Portugal.

International Presence
Hovione has plants in the USA, Ireland, Portugal, Macao and China, R&D centers in USA, Portugal and Shanghai and Offices in Switzerland, Hong-Kong and India.

Strategy
Hovione was always present in the pharmaceutical industry offering  products and 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. In nowadays it is an integrated solution provider, from process chemistry to particle engineering to formulation, from very small scale to full commercial capacity and from preclinical to market. In the area of technologies, it has capabilities on Spray drying (also for potent drugs), spray congealing, fluidized spray drying, aseptic spray drying, jet milling, controlled crystallization, microfluidization. And methodologies Quality by Design, process analytical technology (PAT), britest, lean, scale-up science, modeling.