Hovione Buys Drug Manufacturing Facilit...( LOURES Portugal March 6 /- Hovion...)

LOURES, Portugal, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Hovione announces that it has purchased 75% of Hisyn Pharmaceutical Co. Limited. The Zhejiang provincial authorities have already issued the necessary business license and the joint venture (JV) is now operational.

The acquisition provides Hovione with significant additional drug substance manufacturing production capacity and strengthens its 20 year presence in China. The acquisition includes both development labs in Shanghai and an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant occupying 22,000 square meters. on a 22 acre plot employing 181 staff. Hovione's relationship with Hisyn started with the supply of intermediates, but this factory, which was commissioned in 2005 from a greenfield site, will now produce Hovione's two largest volume products.

"Hisyn represents an opportunity to both increase our manufacturing capacity and ensure a sustainable cost advantage. We find it important to provide our current customers with an assurance of competitive supply over the long run; and in addition we want to have a strong presence in new markets, such as Brazil, India and China, where price is decisive" said Miguel Calado, CFO.

The negotiation and the acquisition processes moved smoothly in part due to the experience Hovione has built in China over the last 3 decades. The Macau plant, with 5 previous FDA inspections and more than 10 years of contract manufacturing relationships in China, has enabled Hovione to effectively bridge cultures with China in every dimension: language, GMP, culture and business practices.

Luis Gomes, Vice President of Generics, and responsible for the investment and integration process added: "When we first came to the Canton fair in 1979 we were buying raw-materials that would be processed in Macau or in Portugal. For many years we felt we'd be better off being an important client of Chinese plants through contract manufacturing deals, because at that time there many JVs
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