Hovione to build continuous manufacturing plant in New Jersey for Vertex cystic fibrosis drugs
The plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2017
Contract manufacturer Hovione is building a commercial-scale continuous manufacturing plant at its site in New Jersey, US as part of an agreement with Boston, MA-headquartered Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Portugal-based Hovione will add the facility to its US$24m expansion of its plant at East Windsor, New Jersey that is already underway and will significantly increase the company's capacity at the site.
Hovione expects the project to be complete by the end of 2017 so that it can manufacture Vertex’s approved cystic fibrosis medicines Orkambi and Kalydeco.
This agreement adds to a recently announced $24m investment in our New Jersey facility
Continuous manufacturing represents a shift from the traditional multi-step, multi-location batch production process, which can take up to four weeks or more to make commercial-ready medicines. With continuous manufacturing, raw materials used to produce oral medicines (tablets) are fed into a single, continuously running machine that includes real-time release testing and can create commercial-ready tablets in just one day.
'Hovione and Vertex have been strong collaborators for more than a decade and share a commitment to innovative science,' said Guy Villax, CEO of Hovione.
'This agreement adds to a recently announced $24m investment in our New Jersey facility. The entire expansion will double Hovione’s development and manufacturing capacity at that site.'
The new facility will offer continuous blending, wet or dry granulation, fluid bed drying, tableting and coating operations.
Spare capacity will be offered to third parties who are interested in manufacturing medicines through this process, Hovione said.
