Special substances

Thanks to its expertise and the regulatory authorizations obtained, for each of its four sites, to handle special substances, Cenexi is a strategic partner of pharmaceutical laboratories and biotechs for the development and manufacture of innovative drugs, whether they are narcotics and psychotropic drugs, high potency or biological drugs.

As these are drugs have psychoactive properties, narcotics and psychotropics can be subject to addiction or abuse through misuse. As such, their delivery, prescription, and manufacture are strictly regulated.

The United Nations has implemented several international conventions in order to control narcotics and psychotropic drugs at a global level. In France, pharmaceutical establishments manufacturing products containing these substances must be authorized by the ANSM (French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products). For the sake of traceability, these establishments are required to maintain a scheduler as well as a special register of entries and exits of these products. Cenexi’s Fontenay-sous-Bois site has obtained the necessary authorization.

These are drugs with a beneficial therapeutic effect at very low doses. Compared to ordinary compounds, they are more effective. The use of highly potent compounds has soared in recent years, being mainly due to oncology products. Steroids and hormones are two other types of product that also account for significant shares in the production of highly potent drugs. At Cenexi, the Braine-l’Alleud, Hérouville-Saint-Clair and Osny sites manufacture these products.

• Allergens
• Hormones
• Oncological products (cytotoxic and cytostatic)

Biological drugs (or biodrugs) are products the active substance of which is a biological substance. This means that their active ingredient is derived from living organisms, such as plants or bacteria, and not obtained by chemical synthesis. This includes proteins (hormones, cytokines, antibodies, vaccines, etc.), and glycans (anticoagulants, such as heparin). Biodrugs have mainly been developed since the 2000s and are particularly effective in treating diseases, such as certain types of cancer, infectious diseases, immune system diseases, deficiencies, such as anemia, and diabetes. The pharmaceutical industry is developing increasingly sophisticated biodrugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, which target extremely specific disease mechanisms in the diseased organism.

These biodrugs are manufactured on Cenexi’s Braine-l’Alleud and Hérouville-Saint-Clair sites.

• Monoclonal antibodies
• ADC (for Antibody-drug conjugate, biopharmaceutical drugs designed as a targeted therapy to treat cancers)
• mRNA and DNA
• Peptides and proteins