Month: October 2022

This Friday, the President of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, visited the low-molecular-heparin production facility that ROVI has built in Escúzar (Granada), which is the first project declared of strategic interest for Andalusia to materialise. The Andalusian Regional Minister of Health, Catalina García; the Regional Minister of Development, Infrastructures and Planning, Marifrán Carazo; the representative of the Andalusian Government in Granada, Antonio J. Granados; and the Mayor of Escúzar, Antonio Arrabal, also visited the facility. The authorities were accompanied by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ROVI, Juan López-Belmonte; the Deputy Chairman and General Manager of the Commercial and Development Areas, Iván López-Belmonte; the Manager of ROVI’s Industrial Area, Miguel Ángel Ortega; and the members of the company’s Board of Directors.

These new facilities, which are awaiting the final administrative authorisations to come into commercial operation, will allow ROVI to double its current production capacity for the active substances of its low-molecular-weight heparins, bemiparin and the enoxaparin biosimilar – two of the medicines classified as strategic for the Spanish health system by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS)[1] –, which the company is now marketing in almost 90 countries. With this milestone, ROVI continues to reinforce its position as one of the leading global players in low-molecular-weight heparin production.

The construction of these high-technological-value facilities has involved an investment of over 33 million euros for ROVI. The work began in April 2020 and has been completed in 2022, meaning that the schedule was met in spite of the pandemic. Because it was classified as a Strategic Project, it received the support of the Project Acceleration Unit, which made the process easier and reduced some of the time periods in administrative procedures.

In addition, the new Escúzar plant will initially create 45 new jobs. Thus, the company continues to show its commitment to the creation of skilled jobs and social and economic development in the region.

Juan López-Belmonte, ROVI’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer highlighted the fact that: “ROVI has been operating and investing in Andalusia for 15 years. Our bet on this community, specifically in the province of Granada, is firm and materialises in the different investments we have made and will continue to make. The construction of this plant is a very important milestone, since it means that our production capacity for bemimparin and our enoxaparin biosimilar, two strategic medicines for the Spanish healthcare system, will double. We would like to thank the Andalusian Government for classifying this project as strategic for the region, which has enabled us to bring a new facility into operation in record time. Today, ROVI takes a further step forward in its commitment to people’s health and its link with Andalusia, the community in and from which we would like to continue growing.”

Juan Manuel Moreno, President of the Andalusian Regional Government, said: “Congratulations on positioning ROVI as a pioneering pharmaceutical company in Spain and allowing the Andalusian people to be party to its growth, stability and soundness. Today is a proud day for Andalusia because we have one of the leading companies in Spain, in a strategic sector like healthcare, generating value-added, stable, skilled employment, and a future for many families”.

On the 8th of October our colleagues from Granada were able to enjoy a different experience by completing the Ruta Boabdil, a trail through the Lecrin Valley. Throughout this hiking activity they accompanied one of the members of the Fundación Deporte y Desafío as they followed in the footsteps of the last Nasrid king.

Quite an experience for the senses! Our colleagues were also able to get closer to the reality of adapted sport while they were the reference and guide of the members of the foundation along the route.

Do you want to know how it was? Don’t miss the video they wanted to share with us.

On Thursday 6 October, Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI sponsored the “Día de la Banderita”, organised by the Red Cross. Under the slogan “Journey to the heart of the Environment”, this edition wanted to leave the piggy banks behind and focus on the energy crisis and the consequences of climate change.

With the aim of responding to families suffering from so-called energy poverty, ROVI wanted to join in as one of the companies sponsoring this traditional event. “People who are forced to leave their homes because they find themselves in increasingly less habitable places (the so-called climate displaced persons) or families who have to choose between paying their utilities and maintaining a balanced diet are just some examples of this problem”, said Eugenia Rodríguez, president of the organisation in the province of Granada, who took the opportunity today to thank all the people and companies that have collaborated.

Throughout the day, a circuit of workshops and prevention and awareness-raising activities was set up for the more than two hundred children who came to participate. The event was also attended by the Mayor of Granada, Francisco Cuenca; the delegate of Social Inclusion, Matilde Ortiz; and the deputy of Social Welfare of the Diputación de Granada, Olvido de la Rosa, who wanted to thank the work of all Red Cross volunteers and collaborating companies for “bringing humanity to every corner of the planet”.

Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI, S.A. (ROVI or the “Company”), Càrniques Celrà, S.L. and Grupo Empresarial Costa, S.L. present Glicopepton Biotech, S. L., a joint venture that involves the creation of one of the first national structures for self-sufficiency in heparins and products of high nutritional value to be used in the composition of animal feed and fertilisers. The goals of this project focus on transforming the present livestock production process into a high-value-added technological process based on a circular economy model.

The project involves the construction of a facility at the Industrial Logistics Platform of Fraga (Huesca), which will produce compounds of high biological value that derive from the intestinal mucosa of pigs. It will involve a joint investment of approximately 40 million euros over the next four years and is expected to create around 30 direct skilled jobs. The project will be subject to obtaining the applicable administrative and regulatory permits and authorisations.

Glicopepton Biotech combines ROVI’s experience as a leading company in the research into low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWH) with the track records of Càrniques Celrà and Grupo Empresarial Costa, two major companies in the livestock and meat industry in Spain. LMWHs are anticoagulant drugs used to prevent and treat venous thromboembolic disease. They are a biological product whose raw material is obtained from the intestinal mucosa of pigs. This project seeks both the creation of economic and technological value, transforming pig mucosa into a high-value-added product like heparin, and the development of new animal food supplements and fertilisers.

ROVI has in-house production capacity to transform raw heparin into sodium heparin and intends to expand this capacity through the construction of a new sodium heparin production line (already underway), in order to be present in all the manufacturing phases of low-molecular-weight heparins.

Juan López-Belmonte Encina, ROVI’s chairman and chief executive officer, highlighted “the strategic importance for Spain of a project with these characteristics, since it provides the country with the capacity to be self-sufficient in obtaining a raw material that is indispensable for the production of an essential medicine like low-molecular-weight heparins. At ROVI, we are very excited about this project since, as a company specialised in these medicines, it will enable us to take a further step in the vertical integration of our LMWH manufacturing.”

The Andalusian Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Catalina García, participated this Monday in the informative breakfast organised by the newspaper Ideal de Granada and sponsored by Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI.

During the event, the Andalusian head reviewed the challenges facing the region in the coming years, which include improving the conditions of the research community in the region and attracting companies linked to R&D&I in health as a source of wealth generation and qualified employment.

García assured that a “firm commitment to R&D&I in Health has been one of the strategic lines of the Andalusian Government since 2019, which is perceived as an essential factor in the search for solutions to the citizens’ health problems”.

The Regional Minister also dedicated a few words to highlight the role of ROVI in Andalusia, especially for the role it played during the pandemic in the manufacture of the Moderna vaccine: “It is one of the great business strongholds of the province of Granada and Andalusia”, she emphasised.