Besins Healthcare has acquired a pharmaceutical manufacturing site in Drogenbos, Belgium to boost the production of hormonal products including Oestrogel.
Currently, the site which is being used as one of two manufacturing sites for their gel products [the other site being in France], is a strategic purchase to allow Besins Healthcare to increase production of its own products, offering greater efficiencies and greater integration into the company’s supply line.
“In the past year, demand for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) treatment in the United Kingdom and Ireland has dramatically increased, resulting in regrettable disruption to supply of Oestrogel. We are looking at a range of options for increasing supplies of this product in the short, medium and longer term,” said Alexandre Besins, joint CEO for Besins Healthcare.
“Besins strongly believes that by re-integrating our manufacturing capabilities we will have better control over our ability to meet demand and live up to the trust that HCPs and patients have put in us.”
Madelaine McTernan, head of the HRT Supply Taskforce, said: “This is very positive news. Besins continue to play a key role in our ongoing positive engagement with the sector and I welcome this step that should reinforce and expand future production capacity to meet rising demand.”
Besins added: “As a leading hormone company providing HRT treatments, we welcome the growing interest and awareness of the menopause and the impact it can have on patients.”
He added, “At Besins Healthcare we are dedicated to doing everything possible to look after the patients we serve and to be part of a solution, providing treatment and relief to patients in the UK as well as the rest of the world.”
Sukhi Basra