INTERPHEX 2011 Datebook: Pharmaceutical Facility of the Year Winners Showcase Projects in New York

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The upbeat mood that opened INTERPHEX 2011 (March 29-31, New York) remains in force as the show continues. As always, there is a lot of interest in the annual Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) winners display in the exhibit hall.

Now in its seventh year, the FOYA is an annual program that recognizes state-of-the-art projects utilizing new, innovative technologies to improve the quality of products, reduce the cost of producing high-quality medicines, and demonstrate advances in project delivery.

There are typically six individual categories for which entries are considered. This year's program also included an honorable mention. The following projects and their respective categories are listed below:

• Process Innovation: F. Hoffman - La Roche Limited: "MyDose" Clinical Supply facility in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland


• Facility Integration: Merck & Co. Incorporated: Global Clinical Supplies Manufacturing, Packaging and Warehouse Expansion, Summit, New Jersey, USA


• Project Execution: MedImmune LLC: Frederick Manufacturing Center (FMC) Expansion facility in Frederick, Maryland, USA


• Equipment Innovation: Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics GmbH: "MARS Project" (Marburg Site) facility in Marburg, Germany


• Operational Excellence: Pfizer Health AB: Project Pegasus - Bio 7 Manufacturing facility in Strängnäs, Sweden


• Sustainability: Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH: SPRING & E-MAP (Strategic Plant Restructuring & Energy Master Plan) project in Freiburg, Germany


• Honorable Mention: Shire HGT: Project Atlas, Building 400 facility in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA

Later in the year, at the annual conference for the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) (Grapevine, Texas, Nov. 6-9), one of the six individual category winners will be named overall "Facility of the Year."

Another constant theme throughout the show has been the rise in industry interest in Asia and its opportunities for growth. In particular, China appears to be garnering the most attention. One of the numerous featured breakout sessions of the show included "China: The New Pharma Frontier," led by Xiong Yu, vice president of China Institute for the Pharmaceutical Industry (CIPI), and Feng Li, senior vice president of Advanced Pharmaceuticals.

Back on the domestic front, interest was high in one of the facility tours offered this year by the Interphex team. Reed Exhibition's R. J. Palermo stopped by the Industrial Info Resources booth (1766) and enthusiastically described his trip to the stunning United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) research and manufacturing facility in Silver Spring, Maryland. Hosted by IPS Project Services (Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania), the tour showcased the site's single-use bioprocessing and advanced aseptic processing technologies. As reported in the PECWeb Pharmaceutical & Biotech Tracker - Online Database, other members of the project team for the $60 million project included the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company (Baltimore, Maryland) as construction manager and Schick Goldstein Architects (Washington, D.C.).

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