Bio and clinical plants feature in 2011 FOYA honours
pharmafile | January 25, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | MedImmune, Merck & Co, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Shire HGT, pharma manufacturing
Three US and three European manufacturing plants have been shortlisted for the annual Facility of the Year awards, with the overall winner due to be announced at the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering annual meeting later this year.
Pfizer is through to the last six having taken two awards, with the other four finalists coming from Roche, Merck & Co, Novartis and MedImmune. Biologic manufacturing plants feature prominently with three category, winners, while two facilities are designed to make clinical trial materials.
Pfizer Health AB won the award for Operational Excellence for its Project Pegasus – Bio 7 Manufacturing facility in Strängnäs, Sweden. The $230 million plant, used to make the growth hormone therapies Genotropin (somatropin) and Somavert (pegvisomant), covers 6,000 sq.m. and was opened in 2009. It is the largest biologics manufacturing facility in Sweden.
Roche took the honours in the Process Innovation category for its ‘MyDose’ Clinical Supply facility in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland. The plant produces the MyDose device, a single-use infusion device used for automatic drug delivery of high volume drugs to patients.
MedImmune has won the award for Project Execution for its $250 million Frederick Manufacturing Center (FMC) Expansion facility in Frederick, Maryland, USA. Phase 1 of this large-scale, mammalian cell culture-based production facility was completed towards the end of 2009 and it is used to manufacture the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prophylaxis Synagis (palivizumab).
Merck & Co took the Facility Integration prize for its Global Clinical Supplies Manufacturing, Packaging and Warehouse expansion project in Summit, New Jersey, USA. The plant was set up partially as a re-commissioned building and partly as a demolish/new build project to maximise reuse of existing infrastructure.
Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics won the award for Equipment Innovation for its ‘MARS Project’ facility in Marburg, Germany. The plant produces vaccines for rabies and tick-borne encephalitis in eggs, and features a production unit – dubbed LEO – which can open 3,000 eggs an hour in aseptic conditions.
Last of the category winners is Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland‘s SPRING & E-MAP (Strategic Plant Restructuring & Energy Master Plan) project in Freiburg, Germany, which took the prize for Sustainability. The plant operates with 91% renewable energy sources and runs with a third less energy requirements than a comparable facility.
Finally, Shire HGT received an honourable mention for its Project Atlas, Building 400 facility in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. The cell culture plant relies heavily on disposable manufacturing technologies and is used to support the manufacture of Replagal (agalsidase alfa) for Fabry disease and Vpriv (velaglucerase alfa) for Gaucher disease.
The overall Facility of the Year award will be presented at ISPE’s annual meeting on 6-9 November in Texas, USA.
Phil Taylor
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