SEQENS unveils its new pharmaceutical quality control laboratory in the presence of Jean Castex, French Prime Minister.

SEQENS, world leader in pharmaceutical synthesis and specialty ingredients, inaugurates its pharmaceutical quality control laboratory on its salicylic acid production site in Roussillon (38), in the presence of Mr. Jean Castex, French Prime Minister.

This new laboratory is a major asset for the development of Seqens’ pharmaceutical activities over the next few years at the Roussillon site and in particular the project to build a new paracetamol production unit which will be commissioned in 2023. This new 1200m2 cGMP building located close to the current and future Seqens workshops in Roussillon, integrates a new control room, the quality laboratory and an administrative office area.

The Prime Minister’s visit was also an opportunity to review the decarbonisation project for the Roussillon platform and the project to build a 10,000-tonne per year paracetamol production unit.
With the support of the French government as part of the France Relance program and the long-term commitments made by Sanofi and UPSA, Seqens secured part of the financing and the viability of the paracetamol project last June. Seqens’ teams are currently finalizing the technical studies that should allow them to validate the process and the total amount of the investment estimated at around €100M before being able to launch the construction of the buildings at the beginning of 2022. The process developed should guarantee the construction of a high-performance, innovative and competitive facility over the long term with an environmental footprint reduced by a factor of 5 to 10 compared to existing units.

This project is made possible by the pooling of essential services and utilities on the Roussillon platform, which is about to finalize its energy transition with the DecarbRON project. This project, which represents a nearly €21 million investment, concludes an exemplary energy transition path for the Roussillon platform, which began more than 10 years ago to exit from coal and become one of Europe’s leading low-carbon platforms by 2023.

“The Seqens group is proud to continue its investments on the Roussillon platform to support its project to build a production unit for an emblematic molecule such as paracetamol while guaranteeing a high level of performance, particularly environmental performance, and competitive and sustainable production. This adventure would not have been possible without the platform’s decarbonization projects, the partnership with our customers Sanofi and UPSA, the support of the France Relance program, but also and above all the mobilization and skills of our technical, operational and R&D teams in Ecully, Roussillon and Porcheville,” said Pierre Luzeau, President of SEQENS.