HPAPI facility developed to produce biodegradable contraceptive molecule

Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic and Bruno Lemaire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery were present at the opening of a new high-performance active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) unit in France. 

SEQENS invested €30 million into its new facility in its Villeneuve-La-Garenne plant. The company says the new unit will allow it to design, develop and industrialise the most complex molecules while maintaining a high quality, safety and respect for the environment.

This project, called UPP30, has been carried out in partnership with the Belgian biotech company Mithra. According to SEQENS, UPP30 was developed for the production of a fifth-generation contraceptive molecule with a superior safety profile for women and with a very high level of biodegradability giving it a major environmental interest.

SEQENS says this project demonstrates the interest for both major pharmaceutical laboratories and biotech companies to rely on local and perennial skills for the development and industrialisation of their molecules.

“Today, I am proud and happy to inaugurate the fruit of many years of work and to see that the SEQENS group continues to invest massively in the latest cutting-edge technologies to maintain and develop more than a hundred years of know-how and skills and thus continue to maintain in France real competences in pharmaceutical synthesis. It is the key to keep our health sovereignty over the long term,” said Jean-Philippe Aubert, UPP30 project director.

The company says that the success of strategic projects such as UPP30 helps to guarantee the maintenance and development in France of value chains that are absolutely essential for the health safety of patients in the country.

“Our sustainability will depend on the ability of our companies to innovate and boost productive investment in our territories. SEQENS is ready to take up the challenge by relying on innovation, R&D and the skills of our teams on our production sites,” said Pierre Luzeau, Chief Executive Officer of SEQENS.