APIs, the raw materials of the pharmaceutical industry

APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) are the central hub of modern medicine research and development into generic drugs and pharmaceutical products. Spain leads the European ranking in API production with an annual investment of €2,500 million, creating 30,000 jobs. With 28% of the market share, Western Europe is the second largest producer of APIs in the world after Asia (60.5%) and ahead of North America (4.6%).

With regard to Bioiberica’s business units for human, animal and plant health, one of our main lines of work is the extraction, development and production of APIs to provide medical solutions worldwide, always guided by sustainability, championing our commitment to the environment and its resources, supporting the circular economy.

We are facing a demanding market that requires API suppliers to provide quality, safety, and reliability throughout the product supply chain, which entails rigorous attention to detail throughout the process in order to avoid future risks to public health.

The source of the ingredients for manufacturing these APIs are varied: from chemical synthesis to extraction from plant and animal sources. In the case of Bioiberica, we follow a fully sustainable line of work focused on the concept of a circular economy. For this reason, our activity, in terms of APIs, starts with animal sources such as isolated biomolecules and extracts from specific organs of certain animals. In this way we are able to promote the full use of resources, closing the circle and giving a second life to the raw materials that nature provides us with.

Considering that the main purpose of APIs is the manufacture of drugs and other health care products, their production is subject to the most rigorous quality and safety standards to ensure optimal manufacturing processes.

For more than a hundred years, APIs of animal origin have been used in traditional medicine, achieving major advances. This is the case with heparin, discovered in 1916 by Jay McLean, a young medical student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA). Bioiberica is proud to be a leader in the production of this active pharmaceutical ingredient, considered an essential medicine by the World Health Organization.

Currently, it is the most widely used anticoagulant drug for the prevention and treatment of thrombosis. According to the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), one in four people in the world die from causes related to this disease. In addition, the potential of the heparin molecule and its derivatives for the development of new drugs is enormous. New applications involving antitumor, anti-inflammatory and antiviral activity are currently being studied.

In addition to heparin, we produce and market other APIs such as chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine or thyroid. Using these products, we can offer solutions for human and animal health ranging from treatments to maintain the body’s metabolic balance (in the case of API thyroid), to promoting joint health (through chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine).

We are experts in our field and provide the analytical knowledge, market expertise, regulatory and quality support that pharmaceutical manufacturers need to accelerate new product development and improve the health and well-being of people around the world. In addition, our production capacity and vertically integrated supply chain model ensure full traceability, safety and sustainability of our bio-based APIs.

Our production capacity and the exigencies to which we submit every process in the supply chain, make us more than just a manufacturer: we are the partner of choice for any partner who wishes to continue innovating with us.