The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering’s (ISPE) Facility of the Year Awards (FOYAs) are here again for 2018. Here, we highlight those companies recognized for expertise and forward-thinking innovation in healthcare manufacturing facilities.
- Project Execution - BioMarin Pharmaceutical for Project Faith, which involved creating a gene therapy manufacturing facility (the first of its kind in the world). An office and warehouse building in Novato, California, were converted into the 18,000 square foot gene therapy facility – with the buildout and commissioning of the facility finished in less than a year.
- Facility Integration – Shire, for the creation of a 120,000 square foot purification facility in Los Angeles, which was integrated alongside eight other buildings and despite significant space constraints.
- Operational Excellence – Another win for Shire in Los Angeles; for the development of their “next generation quality control lab”. Lean principles were incorporated in every aspect of project execution. Organic Kaizen principles were also used.
- Facility of the Future - Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co.KG for the creation of its Center for Visual Inspection and Logistics. According to ISPE, the facility features a number of flexible options for utilizing space and expanding the site to fit customer needs.
- Sustainability - Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Co, a Pfizer Company, for the Pfizer Consumer Health manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China. The facility features recycling of 100% of treated wastewater for cooling tower makeup, toilets and lawn, zero nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater discharge, rainwater harvest system, and solar-powered generation with photo-voltaic cells.
Honorable mentions were also given to Emergent BioSolutions for its BARDA Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing in Baltimore – a partnership between industry and government that aims to act rapidly to stop significant public health threats – and to the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) for their Rangsit Pharmaceutical Production Plant 1 in Pathumthani, Thailand, which uses quality by design and international best practices to manufacture affordable HIV medicines.
The 2018 FOYA winners will be formally recognized at the ISPE Facility of the Year Awards Banquet and Dinner in Philadelphia in November, where the overall winner will also be revealed.
- ISPE, “2018 ISPE Facility of the Year Award Winners Announced”, (2018). Available at bit.ly/2018FOYAs. Accessed April 6, 2018.
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