Ashland has completed a 10-million-dollar expansion of its pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Cabreúva, Brazil. Guillermo Novo (Chair and Chief Executive Officer), Osama Musa (Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer), Alessandra Faccin (Senior Vice President and General Manager, Life Sciences and Intermediates), Brenda Rangel (General Manager, Latin America and responsible for Life Sciences in Latin America) and Hamilton Oliveira (Country Manager, Brazil and responsible for Personal Care in Latin America) opened the new plant with a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 04th, 2025.

This facility represents a significant milestone for our company while expanding the capabilities and workforce to accelerate the delivery of innovative film coating systems for pharmaceuticals and antimicrobial products for personal care.

The investment significantly expands Ashland’s pharmaceutical footprint in the region and capabilities to meet increasing market demand for coated tablets in Latin America and Brazil. 

The investment also includes the modernization of equipment for microbial protection in personal care applications at the Research and Development (R&D) laboratory of the company's Technical Center in São Paulo and follows the company’s previous investments to expand their bioresorbable polymers facility in Mullingar, Ireland and biofunctionals R&D lab in Shanghai, China.  

The inaugural ceremony was conducted by Brenda Rangel and attended by Mayor of Cabreuva Citym Noemi Medeiros Bernardes, as well as members of the board, Hamilton Oliveira representing the Personal Care division, M Andre Rocha, plant operations manager along with the Cabreúva team. After the ribbon-cutting, tours of the plant were conducted with the authorities, board members, employees, journalists, and invited customers.

While waiting for the tour, guests were able to participate in a welcome coffee with networking and follow explanations of innovations and products from each division: nutrition, pharma and microbial protection. After the guided tours of the plant, speeches were given by Guillermo Novo, Osama Musa, Alessandra Faccin, Mayor Noemi Medeiros Bernardes, Mr. Odilon Costa, Member of the Board of Directors of ABIFINA, and Mr. Jose Antonio Barros Munhoz, Federal Deputy of the State of São Paulo. In the presence of all guests, a second inauguration celebration was held, followed by lunch.

“Our focused actions continue to demonstrate Ashland’s strategies to globalize, innovate and invest as a means of driving superior differentiation for customers and increase shareholder value,” said Guillermo Novo. “The investments we have made in Cabreúva and São Paulo are supporting the globalization of our expertise in tablet coatings and microbial protection. They ensure even more innovation, collaboration and technical support for Ashland customers.”
The new state-of-the-art equipment enhances Ashland’s capabilities in tablet coatings application, color matching, stability and quality evaluation. Through enhancements to the R&D lab, Ashland can offer customized solutions to industry needs, and innovative solutions with ultra-high solids coatings, moisture protection, odor and flavor masking, and modified release systems. To ensure optimal performance, local Ashland employees underwent specialized training at the company’s headquarters in the United States and with equipment manufacturers.

“Our investments are focused on meeting growing market demand in Brazil and Latin America with more efficiency and technology,” said Alessandra Faccin. “The new plant accommodates high-performance production, and offers our customers differentiated technical support from formulation design to industrial scale, enabling new innovations and organic growth."

“In personal care, we are excited to commission the local production of microbial protection products in Brazil,” said Hamilton Oliveira Junior. “This investment is a key part of our globalization strategy and will serve as a source of differentiation as we innovate and position supply closer to our customers.” 

"We believe this is the ideal time to expand our operations and strengthen our presence in the region,” said Brenda Rangel. “The pharmaceutical and personal care industries are in full evolution, and Ashland will continue being a strategic innovation partner for the industry, offering high-performance products and services."