French company opening $25 million facility at Spring House Innovation Park in Lower Gwynedd

Roquette, a global company that produces plant-based ingredients and a provider of naturally-derived pharmaceutical excipients, last week announced its plans to open a new $25 million “Innovation Center” at the “Spring House Innovation Park” in Lower Gwynedd.

With this new 23,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility the company “aims to better serve Roquette’s global customer base by working closely with its specialist pharmaceutical teams, based at sister sites in Singapore and France. Together, they aim to advance the research of drug delivery systems for oral prescription drugs and nutraceutical active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), while improving speed to market.”

“The recent pandemic has highlighted the importance of continued collaboration in the global healthcare community to bring innovative new products and services to fruition,” says Paul Smaltz – vice president of pharmaceutical solutions at Roquette. “We’re proud to play a role in the advancement of treatments that help improve, sustain and save lives – and this Innovation Center is the next step in providing an even greater level of support to customers looking to push the boundaries of R&D and progress new product developments to market quickly. As an important hub for innovation in the US, Pennsylvania is the ideal location to enable us to collaborate more effectively with our partners and help address important future nutrition and health challenges with next-level, premium solutions.”

“45% of drugs developed globally come from the US. Expanding our operations in this market is, therefore, key to achieving Roquette’s strong growth ambitions for its pharma business,” explains Roquette’s CEO, Pierre Courduroux. “The new facility reflects Roquette’s commitment to the region and the wider scientific community, while also representing a key milestone in our goal to becoming the number one trusted formulation and technology partner for its customers. Through the investment, we aim to solidify our global leadership position and ability to address the world’s most pressing nutrition and health challenges.”

The facility is scheduled to open in the summer of 2022.

Photo: Roquette