Laxxon Medical has joined forces with the international pharmaceutical contract manufacturer Hovione to produce the first clinical 3D screen-printed tablet samples on an industrial scale and under cGMP standards. This significant step towards commercialization is the result of a strategic partnership with the family-owned company Hovione, which has been a reliable partner for the pharmaceutical industry for decades and enjoys an excellent reputation for innovation and best practices.
Hovione has four FDA-approved production facilities as well as development laboratories in Lisbon, Portugal and New Jersey, USA. Laxxon Medical and Hovione plan to collaborate to advance the use of 3D screen printing technologies in the pharmaceutical industry. The partnership will make the 3D screen printing platform available from early development stages to routine commercial manufacturing. As part of the agreement, Hovione will introduce Laxxon Medical’s 3D screen printing technology, the SPID® technology, into Hovione’s cGMP production facilities, initially in Portugal and later in the United States.
The partnership combines Laxxon’s expertise in 3D screen printing, based on SPID® technology, with Hovione’s product and process development, engineering, and manufacturing competence in pharmaceutical applications. The 3D technology offers numerous advantages, including the potential to produce unique or customized dosage forms with properties that cannot be achieved with conventional dosage forms, including the ability to produce tablets in any shape and size, the ability to easily adjust the number of active ingredients and individual components in the tablet composition, and even to set the dosage individually for each patient to produce personalized medicines.
Klaus Kühne, COO of Laxxon Medical commented: “Laxxon is pleased to enter into a long-term partnership with Hovione. This partnership will significantly accelerate the establishment of 3D screen printing in the pharmaceutical industry and thus also our ability to serve our customers.”
Helmut Kerschbaumer, CEO of Laxxon added: “Hovione has a worldwide reputation for its pharmaceutical innovation services, expertise, and market access. This agreement is a significant milestone for Laxxon in terms of our own market strategy and development efforts.”
Dr. Jean-Luc Herbeaux, CEO of Hovione stated: “We consider Laxxon Medical’s 3D printing technology to be highly innovative and promising. It not only enables the customization and production of drugs with complex shapes and structures as well as unique drug release properties, but also has the potential to reduce the time and cost of drug development. We look forward to the prospect of supporting Laxxon in industrializing its 3D printing technology and making it accessible to a larger number of pharmaceutical and medical technology companies.”
About Laxxon Medical
Laxxon Medical is a pharmaceutical technology company developing patented, state-of-the-art 3D screen printing development and manufacturing solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. Laxxon’s SPID® technology (Screen Printing Innovational Drug Technology) enables various pharmaceutical application forms such as oral, transdermal, and implantable delivery systems through geometric shaping and heterogeneous distribution of active ingredients, allowing for different release profiles such as sequential release. With SPID® technology, small batches for research and development up to commercial-scale production can be printed without changing the manufacturing process.
SPID® Technology (3D Screen Printing)
The SPID® technology (Screen Printed Innovative Drug Technology) is an additive manufacturing process that enables the development and production of complex formulations and geometric structures of oral dosage forms to optimize the release profiles of common drugs as well as new drug developments.
About Hovione
Hovione is an international company with over 60 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. As a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), the company offers a fully integrated range of services for active pharmaceutical ingredients, intermediates, and drug products. The company has four FDA-inspected sites in the USA, Portugal, Ireland, and China, as well as development laboratories in Lisbon, Portugal and New Jersey, USA. Hovione provides pharmaceutical customers with services for the development and compliant manufacturing of innovative drugs, including highly potent compounds, as well as customized product solutions for the entire life cycle of medicines. In the field of inhalation, Hovione offers a complete range of services, from the development of active ingredients and formulations to devices. Hovione’s corporate culture is based on innovation, quality, and reliability. Hovione was the first chemical-pharmaceutical company to be certified as a B Corp., is a member of Rx-360 and EFCG, and actively participates in industry quality improvement initiatives to set new global industry standards.
