Business View - December 2015 47
and pharmaceuticals. Spray drying
increases a drug’s solubility and/
or its dissolution rate in the body.
“So for those drugs that are poorly
bioavailable due to their physio-
chemical properties, by applying
this technology, they become more
bioavailable,” Gil says. The technol-
ogy is especially useful for produc-
ing ASDs – Amorphous Solid Dis-
persions – in which the active drug
molecule is dispersed in a solid me-
dium or carrier.
But even in this rarefied and highly
technological arena, Hovione has
competitors. However, Gil believes
that his company has several ad-
vantages. “Customers come to
us because of our high standards
of quality and the number of new
drugs approved with which we were
involved,” he says. “The other thing
that is very unique to the industry is
our interrelation of chemistry with
the spray drying technology. We are
the world leaders in terms of provid-
ing that service to the pharmaceuti-
cal industry. That is a key differentia-
tor for Hovione in the marketplace.”
According to Gil, Hovione has grown
steadily over the last five years, and
is now planning a major domestic
expansion. “In New Jersey, we’re
working at maximum levels and be-
cause of the quality of the team that
we have, we are doubling the size of
the site and doubling the number of
people in the next year and a half.
And we will be adding more API production capacity and
more reactors. We are also adding a large-scale spray dry-
er to produce commercial materials. We are also adding
more research and development labs and people to assist
us in meeting the growing demands from our customers.”
Clearly, Hovione’s past successes have not gone unno-
ticed by the pharmaceutical community; the company’s
client base has grown steadily. “In the beginning,” says Gil,
“it was more of going after our customers; now it’s more a
mix. There are many customers that come to us because
they’ve heard about Hovione; they know that we provide
unique services to the industry and they know the quality
of the company. But, we also have a dedicated sales team
to go and approach companies to see if there’s a way we
can do business with them.”
In soliciting that potential business, Gil stresses that Hovi-
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