Pierre Luzeau, CEO of SEQENS sends a message of encouragement, commitment and thanks to all the group’s employees . He reminds us how essential our activities are to fight the spread of the Cornonavirus

Dear colleagues, dear friends, 

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States. 

This unprecedented crisis is changing our lives, both at home and within our manufacturing plants. I would like to express all my support and assure you of my presence at your side during this difficult ordeal. 

My first priority facing this health crisis, from the beginning and across all our facilities around the world, was to out in place all hygiene and social distancing measures to guarantee everyone’s safety and to fight the spread of COVID-19. 

During this period, our responsibility is also to ensure the continuity of our essential activities for the benefit of our friends, relatives, parents, children and colleagues. 

Our products are indeed essential to the manufacture of drugs, hygiene products, water treatment, for the food industry, for the energy sector and more generally to many everyday applications. I would like to give some concrete examples that we can be collectively proud of. 

• SEQENS Essential Drug Substances, is one of the main suppliers of paracetamol for Europe and is the world leader in aspirin (1 out of 3 tablets in the world). 
• Our teams in Roussillon, Saint-Fons, Bangpoo, Wuxi and Yangzi are more than ever mobilized to serve the world’s populations. 

• All SEQENS CDMO teams, a leader in the synthesis of APIs and pharmaceutical intermediates, are also mobilized 
• SEQENS’LAB, the group’s R&D center located at Porcheville, supported by the six GMP manufacturing sites of the CDMO activity Aramon, Lahr, Limay, Newburryport, Turku, Villeneuve-la-Garenne) work in collaboration with pharmaceutical laboratories developing small chemical molecules for the treatment of COVID-19, (officially called SARS-CoV-2).  

Our teams have redoubled their efforts contribute to the rapid availability of these molecules now pending the results of clinical trials, which are currently underway. 

• Our Limay teams produce one of the chemical components involved in a rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19. 

• Since Wednesday the 18th March, the teams at the Bourgoin-Jallieu site (France) have made two production lines available to enable the production of more than 45,000 litres of hydroalcoholic solution every day. The plant of Couterne (France)has started today to start production of approximately an additional 30,000 liters per day. 
   

These large quantities are mainly intended for the hospital sector, the health sector, the fire brigade, the administrations of large cities but also for those active in food distribution in France.  
 

We contribute to the development of treatment against COVID19, we ensure the supply of drugs and key health products, we provide the vast majority of the exceptional production of hydroalcoholic solutions in France.  

• Our Newburyport site in the United States has also launched the production of hydroalcoholic solutions for the benefit of local communities. 

• Our colleagues from SEQENS Mineral Specialties manufacture at Nancy and Singapore, areas particularly affected by the virus, the well-known green products, sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate. 
• Sodium bicarbonate, a product in which we have heavily invested over the last 10 years, is a key excipient for hemodialysis treatments, large quantities of which are needed to address the COVID 19 crisis and is essential in the manufacture of effervescent tablets vital for the pharmaceutical industry. 

• Our colleagues from SEQENS Custom Specialties in Middlesborough and Billingham, in the UK, a country now hard-hit by the sanitary crisis, ensures the production of essential ingredients for many cleaning products and for preservatives and emollients in creams and gels, in high demand during this time 

From these examples, I wanted to remind you how essential our productions are, especially during this unprecedented period.  

 We contribute to the development of treatment against COVID19, we ensure the supply of drugs and key health products, we provide the vast majority of the exceptional production of hydroalcoholic solutions in France.  

Thanks to your support, we can be proud to contribute to the containment of the crisis. I know the efforts being made by all of you and I would like to personally thank you for your hard work and major contribution during this period. 

How long this pandemic will last, certainly several more weeks, but our Chinese colleagues and friends from Yangzi and Wuxi, after having also been hard-hit by the crisis, are gradually seeing the situation improves and their selfless dedication during this period is an example for all of us to follow. 

In these difficult times, I am particularly proud of the solidarity and perseverance of everyone, which I have witnessed on the ground. Together, we will overcome this ordeal. 

I want to end with an optimistic outlook. When this crisis ends and it will end, the world will be different, our Seqens group will be stronger and each of us, as individuals, will come out of this crisis stronger. 

It is in these moments that we can be proud of our contribution, however modest, to the world around us, to our friends and loved ones. 

I know the efforts made by all of you, they will not be in vain and I personally would like to thank each and every one of you.

Pierre Luzeau