The Franco-German pharmaceutical group Axplora (2,400 employees, €500 million in turnover in 2022) is preparing to invest more than 50 million euros in its Mourenx factory (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), located on 9 hectares of land. within the Chem’pôle 64 fine chemicals and specialties platform, in the Lacq basin.
This investment follows the signing, at the end of December, of a “major player in the pharmaceutical industry” whose name it did not wish to reveal but “with whom discussions started in May 2024”, announces Daniel Lasanow, director of the Axplora sites in Mourenx and Chasse-sur-Rhône (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes). These contracts target the purification by Axplora of the raw active ingredient of an intestinal hormone, GLP-1 (glucagon-like-peptide), acting on the regulation of glucose in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as diabetes and obesity.
Higher skill level and regulatory requirements
“The aim is to carry out a real operational transformation for this site, moving from synthetic chemistry to the purification of specific molecules in a biological environment,” continues Daniel Lasanow. This will involve “a new level of skills and greater regulatory requirements for the site”, confirms an Axlora spokesperson, affirming that it is destined to become “a center of excellence” in purification by industrial chromatography .
Technical requirements
“A first phase of transformation of equipment to adjust it to this new production has started.
It must be completed in October”, specifies Daniel Lasanow when discussing in detail the purpose of the planned investments. “A second phase will carry out vertical extension work to add insulation equipment and transform the site” .
-Double or even triple production capacities
The production of the first qualification batches (pre-marketing) with the customer is planned for early 2026. “A second phase will consist of horizontally extending the site to increase – double or even triple – the production capacities of this activity,” explains the manager. . An extension of the order of “a few hundred square meters”, according to him.
If Axplora does not plan to increase its workforce immediately, Daniel Lasanow specifies that the site is in the process of defining internal training processes and that the factory will also, “in the medium term, make some recruitments to acquire specific technical expertise, particularly in microbiology.
Regular investments
Axplora, resulting from the merger in 2022 between the Lyon-based Novasep and the German PharmaZell (also associating the Italian Farmabios), is a supplier of active ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry. At Mourenx, a site with 140 permanent employees, it notably manufactures for the American company Pfizer the active ingredient in Paxlovid, an antiviral drug sold as a treatment for Covid-19. It also has a fish oil purification unit for the manufacture of Omega 3.
Axlora’s transformation comes at the right time, a few days after the government announced support for seven new industrial projects intended to increase the production of medicines in France.
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