Hovione and GEA announce a strategic collaboration to advance Continuous Tableting

Continuous tableting at Hovione's recently opened facility in Portugal. (Photo Hovione)

Navin Lakhanpaul, Global Head of Pharma-Solid Dosage, GEA (right), and Jean-Luc Herbeaux, CEO of Hovione (left), signed the agreement for close cooperation between the two companies. (Photo: GEA)

Hovione and GEA today announced a strategic collaboration to advance Continuous Tableting. This partnership stemmed from a successful customer-supplier relationship spanning several years. It combines GEA´s engineering expertise with Hovione´s development and manufacturing experience and both parties commit to partner to accelerate the adoption of Continuous Tableting technology.

The advantages of continuous over batch manufacturing are well known. Continuous production systems allow for leaner and risk-reduced development paths, leaner supply chains, increased built-in quality, and in general, manufacturing processes of greater flexibility and reduced complexity. In the context of this strategic collaboration, Hovione and GEA will combine their strengths to further advance the technology and contribute to the establishment of new standards and new levels of market acceptance.

“Hovione has a track record in industrializing and democratizing emerging pharmaceutical technologies, such as amorphous solid dispersions by spray drying, and turn them into dependable and scalable offerings that are available to all.” Says Jean-Luc Herbeaux, CEO of Hovione. He adds “We have been committed to Continuous Tableting for the last seven years and we are now ready to contribute decisively to the advancement of one of the most promising technologies in pharma manufacturing. This collaboration with GEA, gives us the opportunity to link up with a leading designer and supplier of Continuous Tableting equipment solutions and bring continuous tableting to the next levels of reliability, flexibility and adoption.”

Navin Lakhanpaul, Global Head Pharma-Solid Dosage, GEA, adds: “As a leading supplier of process technology, GEA has established itself as a trusted solution provider in the pharmaceutical industry, and as a pioneer in the development of Continuous Tableting technology.” He adds “Our relationship with Hovione over many years has clearly demonstrated the value in further collaborating and developing synergies in our respective areas of expertise. We share a common objective of enabling the wider use of Continuous Tableting in the Pharmaceutical Industry, and firmly believe that our partnership with Hovione will accelerate the growth of this exciting technology."