Humanigen Inc (HGENQ)

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In Hérouville-Saint-Clair, the Cenexi laboratory will produce a treatment against Covid

https://eng-premium.paris-normandie.fr/id285219/article/2022-03-07/herouville-saint-clair-le-laboratoire-cenexi-produira-un-traitement-contre-le

Cenexi, a pharmaceutical laboratory in Hérouville-Saint-Clair (Calvados), will produce a drug against Covid-19 developed by an American company. The latter came on site to visit the site.

His name is not a seller but his future is full of hope! Lenzilumab, as it is called, is one of the ten most promising molecules against severe forms of Covid-19. It was developed in the United States, at Humanigen , a biopharmaceutical company based in San Fransisco and it is in the Cenexi laboratory , located in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, near Caen, that it will be manufactured for the next five years, both for France but also for Europe. The good news of the partnership between the two actors has just been announced during the visit of American leaders to Normandy a few days ago.

Launch early 2023

A subcontractor for the pharmaceutical industry (CDMO for Contract Development Manufacturing Organizations), Cenexi, a French player in pharmaceutical manufacturing specializing in the formulation, development and manufacture of innovative sterile products, now designated as exclusive supplier, has prepared for this impressive order. "We were looking for a laboratory in Europe with sterile lines, high capacity, quality and obviously at a good price" , smiles Timothy Morris, financial and operations director of Humanigen, in the premises of Cenexi. The American start-up had been working on an anti-inflammatory product for more than five years. The Covid-19 health crisis has accelerated his research.

Of course, the amounts of the transactions between the two players remain secret. In Hérouville, the lines, specializing in the manufacture and filling of sterile liquid vials, are ready. Humanigen has already submitted to the High Authority for Health (HAS), in February 2022, a request for early access for lenzilumab in France in order to allow patients in therapeutic impasse to benefit, on an exceptional and temporary basis, from the molecule, effective against hyper-inflammation of the bronchi. Until all authorizations, French and European, are granted, the launch of large-scale production should not take place before the beginning of 2023.

One million bottles per year

"We will be able to supply 1 million bottles per year, but we could go up to 2 million per year if necessary", emphasizes Alexis Paul, development director of the French laboratory. Created in 2004, Cenexi, in addition to Hérouville (280 employees for €41 million in turnover), also has laboratories in Fontenay-sous-Bois and Osny, as well as Braine-l'Alleud, in Belgium. At the head of 1,500 employees and nearly €200 million in turnover in 2021, Cenexi is experiencing steady growth. This last transaction should help it position itself on the very active international market for drugs with major therapeutic indications. "Hérouville could even become the second production site for the USA", hopes Alexis Paul.

(Translation by Google)