Guy Villax

Guy Villax has been Hovione’s Chief Executive Officer since 1997, having previously worked at Price Waterhouse in London and Hovione in Asia.

Guy was on the EFCG’s Board (European Fine Chemicals group, a CEFIC committee in Brussels) from 2004 to 2016. Over this period he was involved in many EFCG advocacy activities to express the voice of the API industry in a wide range of legislative matters: IP, environmental protection, trade issues, quality of medicines and patient safety. Guy has been an active actor in the pharma chemistry industry for almost 40 years, this results in a wealth of understanding and perspectives on the subject matter and on the impact of globalization on this industry.

He testified in 2007 before a US Congress sub-committee on the risks of globalization of the pharma supply chain, falsified medicines and the weak oversight of regulators over API producers located abroad – this took place 2 months before the counterfeit Heparin tragedy that killed over one hundred patients.

He was part of the EFCG Team that represented the API industry’s views during the legislative process that led to the European Parliament voting the Directive on Falsified Medicines.

He represented the EU API industry in the negotiations with the US FDA during 2011 that resulted in the Generic Drugs User Fee Act (GDUFA). This legislation caused a faster approval of ANDAs (market authorizations for the US generics market) and a sharp increase in FDA inspections in India and China and the creation of FDA offices in these countries.

Guy was a board member of Rx-360 from 2010 to 2017, having been Chair in 2016/17. This consortium brings together companies in the pharmaceutical value chain, whose mission is to fight counterfeit medicines.

Guy has a degree in Management from Buckingham University, he is fluent in English, French, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish.

As a CEO, Guy has led Hovione over the last 23 years. Hovione employs over 1800 employees and has labs and manufacturing sites on 3 continents. Hovione is the CMO that stood behind over 18 approvals of new drugs by the FDA between 2015 and 2019, representing a 10% share of all US FDA. approvals.