Hovione has signed an agreement to significantly ramp up output of Ligand Pharmaceuticals’ Captisol, a chemically modified cyclodextrin that improves drugs’ solubility and stability. Gilead Sciences uses the excipient to formulate the COVID-19 treatment remdesivir. “Hovione will soon be producing per month the quantity it usually produces in one year,” Jean-Luc Herbeaux, its chief operating officer, says in a press release. Hovione is the sole producer of Captisol under a longstanding partnership with Ligand.

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