West Pharmaceutical: the Nouvion-en-Thiérache plant paralysed by a cyberattack

On 4 May 2026, West Pharmaceutical — the French arm of the US group West Pharmaceutical Services, whose plant at Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache (Aisne) makes rubber stoppers and components for syringes and injectable medical devices — detected a cyberattack on its IT systems and was forced to halt production at the site, which employs around 770 people.

After what was first reported as a simple IT outage, the company confirmed a security incident and activated its crisis procedures, proactively taking part of its infrastructure offline to contain the spread. Manufacturing equipment was isolated from the network, slowing or stopping several production lines. Management alerted law enforcement and brought in external digital-forensics specialists to investigate. Locally, the disruption was significant enough that the plant filed for partial unemployment (chômage partiel) for its workforce.

As of the reporting, no ransomware group claimed responsibility and there was no verified evidence that pharmaceutical, customer or employee data had been exfiltrated; the company said it had detected no new intrusion and was still assessing whether any data was affected.

What was exposed or impacted:

• Industrial production at the Nouvion-en-Thiérache plant (rubber components for syringes and medical devices), halted or slowed for around two weeks
• IT and operational systems taken offline as a containment measure
• No confirmed exfiltration of personal or business data at the time of reporting

West Pharmaceutical announced that it had fully resumed operations around 20 May 2026 and stated the incident would have no material impact on its second-quarter or annual financial outlook.