Philippe is an experienced healthcare leader, business developer and entrepreneur, who began his healthcare career in Process Development and Industrialization.
Before joining Seqens in 2020, Philippe held a number of leadership roles in CMC Project Management, Business Development and Outsourcing, over 18 years at Sanofi. Most recently, he had held the role of General Manager of Sanofi Active Ingredient Solutions (CEPiA), leading the development, manufacturing and sales of API to the pharmaceutical market from Sanofi industrial network.
Redefining globalisation
Highlights from our discussion with Philippe Clavel, Vice President – Innovative & Generic Pharmaceuticals at Seqens.
Philippe Clavel: “We place customers in the heart of our activities, in order to bring solutions and create value for them and, above all, to ensure that every decision is made to maximize customer experience when partnering with Seqens – to make collaborations simple, transparent and proactive.”
Adjusting to demand
Contract manufacturers need to adjust to market demands, investing in breakthrough technologies and cost efficiency plans. As more complex modalities are developed (mAbs, ADCs, viral vectors, mRNA vaccines), and small molecules show higher specificity and biological activity, there is a growing requirement for HPAPI capabilities, for example.
Responding to such demands, Seqens in undergoing a 5-year program of development and expansion to bring its customers the technologies and capacities that they need, including:
- €5 million in Porcheville (France) and $4 million in Devens (USA) for R&D
- Over €35 million in Villeneuve-la-Garenne and €25 million in Aramon (both in France) for HPAPIs
- Over €15 million for modernizing sites in Limay and Bourgoin (both in France)
- Over €15 million for flow chemistry, including a pilot unit in Porcheville and additional industrial investment.
A new chapter
Naturally, such ambitious plans require significant investment. At the end of 2021, Seqens announced some huge changes, as SK Capital became the majority shareholder, with additional investment from Bpifrance and Novsante (and further re-investment from historical shareholders Mérieux Equity Partners, Ardian and Eximium), and a merger with Wavelength Pharmaceuticals. This very complex re-structure of investors and the concurrent merger started a new chapter for Seqens in 2022.
“We are very enthusiastic to start working with SK Capital, who are bringing their strong experience and energy,” says Philippe. “Wavelength’s product portfolio is complementary to the Seqens historical product portfolio, with no overlapping, so the combination of Seqens and Wavelength creates a leader in next generation APIs, with a unique offering and around 100 APIs.”
Customers wondering how the deal will strengthen Seqens’s products and services will not be disappointed. As well as creating a leader in APIs, the merger with Wavelength creates Seqen’s manufacturing site footprint, with GMP capacities in Israël, industrial expertise in HPAPIs, and particle engineering with technologies like micronization and spray drying.
Intelligent investment
As part of its ongoing investment program, earlier this month (March 2022) Seqens completed its isopropanol (IPA) plant capacity expansion. Interestingly, the IPA plant will be run under new and enhanced energy standards, reducing energy consumption by 66% and eliminating a minimum of 10 thousand tons of CO2 emissions.
“On the new IPA unit, we have optimized the entire process to reduce energy consumption,” says Philippe. “We actually re-use steam from the first IPA distillation in other workshops, hence the very significant reduction of 66%.”
Philippe notes that, over the past 2 years, there has been a massive move in the industry, especially when working with Big Pharma, to reduce energy and improve sustainability. He says that Seqens is very well positioned to address these demands, and that it is starting to be a true differentiating factor.
A global economy
Many of the discussions at DCAT Week 2022 focussed on supply chains. Although it is widely acknowledged that re-shoring manufacturing was already a trend before the pandemic – following environmential and regulatory issues in Asia, and government incentives in the US, COVID has made a lot of companies re-assess their supply chains. Nevertheless, Philippe believes that pharma will continue to depend on upstream raw materials manufactured in Asia.
“We are and we will stay in a global economy,” he says. “Globalization is not shrinking; it is being redefined.”
He points out that, although pharma has entered a wave of on-shoring, with a clear objective to produce locally, relocation takes time and a significant share of chemicals manufacturing will remain in Asia. Diversification of sourcing across geographies in order to mitigate risk is also a wise strategy in securing supply, as current events in Ukraine illustrate.
A human perspective
Asked how the situation in Ukraine is affecting Seqens, Philippe first expressed sorrow for the humanitarian situation.
“I feel for them,” says Philippe. “And I also feel for the Russian people.”
He continues, “As a group, we are not really exposed in terms of sales, but we are seeing an impact on costs of raw materials, energy, transport… that’s true for the whole industry. Right now, our priority is to secure raw materials, but we are also having to have some difficult discussions with customers about pricing.”
Seqens is having those discussions on a case-by-case basis, as are most other companies this week. Our global economy makes us inter-dependent on each other, and crises such as the one in Ukraine highlight the importance of co-operation and compassion in our one small world.
