Hovione and Laxxon Medical entered into a strategic collaboration to advance the use of 3D screen printing technologies for the pharmaceutical industry.

The partnership combines Laxxon´s expertise in 3D screen printing, based on their SPID-Technology, with Hovione’s product and process development, engineering and manufacturing expertise in pharmaceutical applications.

Under the terms of the agreement, Hovione will establish the Laxxon Medical 3D screen printing technology at Hovione’s cGMP production sites first in Portugal and later in the USA.

With this partnership the platform will be available from early development phases to routine commercial manufacturing.

According to the company, the 3D technology displays numerous advantages including the potential to produce unique or customized dosage forms with characteristics that cannot be achieved with conventional dosage forms, the ability to create tablets of any shape and size, the option to easily adjust the number of active substances and individual components in the composition of the tablet and even to set the dosage individually for each patient for personalized medicines.

“Laxxon is thrilled to establish a long-term partnership with Hovione,” said Klaus Kuehne, COO of Laxxon Medical. “This partnership will serve as a great accelerator in establishing 3D screen printing within the pharmaceutical industry thus accelerating our ability to serve our customers.”

“Hovione has a global reputation for their pharmaceutical innovation services, expertise and market access,” said Helmut Kerschbaumer, Laxxon’s CEO. “This agreement marks a significant milestone for Laxxon in terms of our own market strategy and development efforts. We are looking forward to collaborating with Hovione to promote innovation through 3D screen printing.”

“We find the Laxxon Medical 3D printing technology to be very innovative and enabling. It not only allows for the customization and production of drug products with complex shapes and structures as well as unique API release characteristics but it also has the potential to reduce the time and cost of drug development,” said Jean-Luc Herbeaux, Hovione´s CEO. “Hovione has a track record of turning emerging pharmaceutical production technologies into reliable and scalable offerings at both developmental and commercial scales.”

Herbeaux addded: “We are excited at the prospect of supporting Laxxon in industrializing its 3D printing technology and make it accessible to a greater number of pharmaceutical and medical device companies.”