Accessia Pharma Provide efficient tools to grow

Launched notably by Noshaq, Accessia Pharma provides pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a solid infrastructure to support them in their small-scale industrialisation process. This is a service devoted to the growth of the health economy in the Liège region.

Accessia Pharma was born out of the convergence of two factors: a gap in the value chain of the pharmaceutical sector in Wallonia at GMP pre-industrialisation infrastructure level (a phase presenting a high level of financial risk) and the opportunity to put the former Colgate Palmolive R&D site in Herstal to use again. A market study ordered by the GRE was carried out by Eklo and the project was officially launched in 2016 with the support of strong shareholding by Noshaq, Intégrale, Sofipole and the SFPI.

Officially inaugurated in March 2018, Accessia Pharma provides infrastructures that meet the strict pharmaceutical production standards: 3,500 square metres of laboratories, clean rooms and offices including 7 grade C and D rooms of GMP standard which is the equivalent of ISO 7 or 8 in international standards. These infrastructures required investment of €10m and total funding of approximately €17m. The main advantage was enabling young companies with high potential to combine laboratory development and clean room production on the same site.

Accessia Pharma has already attracted seven clients, including Eyed Pharma, a company specialising in Ophthalmology which is preparing his first clinical trial. Alongside it, young start-up Xpress Biologics has developed preclinical expertise in the production of recombinant proteins, antibody fragments, conjugated proteins and plasmid DNA and does outsourced work for industry. For its part, Pharmalex develops software for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies based on its statistics expertise.

However, Accessia Pharma has not limited itself to its current three clients: an external client may also use its infrastructures while keeping the independence of its production authorisation from the relevant authorities and its intellectual property. Accessia Pharma

may then offer this client support in completing the GMP dossier and provide the company with a pre-validated package that would allow it to gain a year and a half or two years to reach the production phase for its products.

With a business model that is unique in Belgium, Accessia Pharma intends in time to attract a dozen companies to its site. The potential is huge: the projects are supported during their first crucial clinical stages and the internalisation of the value linked to the intellectual property is very advantageous. It is usually at the end of these initial clinical phases that the project takes on value. Accessia Pharma can therefore provide assistance to the blossoming of great successes in the years to come and in so doing contribute to job creation in accordance with the regional strategy of economic redeployment. And that’s not all. Although the installations are intended for the early clinical phases (Phase I and II) because of the size of the production areas, Accessia Pharma has purchased more than 3 hectares around the site to meet the future expansion needs of companies that might grow within its walls. A winning formula!

© Accessia Pharma

Accessia Pharma 89, avenue du Parc industriel - B-4041 Herstal Tel.: +32 (0)4 346 00 40 E-mail: info@accessiapharma.com http://accessiapharma.com/en/