Hovione has acquired an aseptic spray-drying production line, vial filling and back up utilities from Acusphere, providing access to equipment and knowledge for the production of sterile drug substance and sterile drug product. The equipment includes sterile filtration, aseptic spray drying, secondary drying and vial filling, as well as terminal sterilization systems, lyophilization, WFI and clean steam production utilities.

“This is a very exciting move for Hovione, we are adding aseptic production -a tough new area of pharmaceutical manufacturing- to our offering. We have been considering aseptic production for some time and today we took the first step,” said Dave Hoffman, head of Hovione’s Exclusives and Particle Design Business Units.

The acquisition adds to Hovione’s cGMP spray-drying facilities, which includes lab, pilot and various commercial scale production installations in Portugal, U.S. and in Ireland.