Novasep-PharmaZell Invests €7.3M to Increase API Production Capacity

The Novasep-PharmaZell Group has announced a €7.3M (approximately $7.45 USD) investment for its Mourenx, France site as part of a larger project supported by the French government’s “France Relance” Plan, to create a multipurpose pilot workshop within one of its production units. The new industrial tool will support the growth of the Mourenx site and sustain the growing demand for production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), specifically the highly potent drugs (HPAPIs) used to treat cancer.

According to a company press release, the investment includes an upgrade of two existing 2000-liter reactors, a new 1500-liter reactor, and a Hastelloy filter-dryer. This aligns with the company’s ongoing efforts to modernize equipment and product APIs for targeted therapies, focusing on HPAPIs.

“This major project to modernize and expand the Mourenx site demonstrates our new Group’s determination to pursue the strategy of industrial investments that we have been successfully deploying for several years,” said Jean Bléhaut, president of the CDMO Business Unit, in the release. “This is a clear and practical answer for our pharmaceutical customers, who face growing challenges to secure supply chains in the field of healthcare products, and particularly APIs.”

“Creating this unit is an opportunity to diversify the Mourenx site’s activity with a new state‐of‐the‐art production tool that improves our capacity for handling highly potent therapeutic products,” added Patrick Suescun, Mourenx Site Director. “This will clearly be beneficial to our clients and their patients, as well as to our local teams, who will be working with the best equipment to fulfill our commitments.”