Baxter’s BioPharma Solutions business is pleased to announce that the company’s oncology manufacturing facility expansion in Halle, Germany is a winner of the 2016 Facility of the Year Award (FOYA) in the category of Operational Excellence.
The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) is a premier global awards programme that recognises innovation and creativity in manufacturing facilities that serve the regulated healthcare industry.
Baxter’s Halle facility team was recognised for undertaking a challenging project to add additional capacity to service the CMO market of parenteral oncology products, while avoiding an impact on current operations and customers.
Baxter’s BioPharma Solutions business manufacturing vice-president Dr Burkhard Wichert said: "We are honoured to be recognised with this prestigious award.
"Cancer incidence continues to rise, and this completed expansion offers not only capacity, but innovative processes and technologies that will allow Baxter to stay at the forefront of parenteral manufacturing for oncology therapies.
"We take our commitment to world-class contract manufacturing of oncology products seriously, and understand that the better we can serve our customers, the better they can serve patients around the world."
Baxter applied operational excellence principals to innovative manufacturing concepts with state-of-the-art technology.
The company combined this with flexibility for rapid changeover and broad flexibility to manufacture various liquid formulations, including organic solvents, biologics and suspensions, in a combination that helps to assure product quality and economical manufacturing.
The expanded facility in Halle was designed by Baxter in-house engineers with extensive experience in sterile manufacturing as an evolution of reliable processes and equipment on-site. This includes new equipment combined with innovative disinfection systems and an optimised layout to improve efficiency, prevent contamination and keep potential losses on the filling line to a minimum.
Extensive use of glass throughout the expansion area significantly improves visibility for workers and visitors to strengthen the applied LEAN philosophy.
The result was to provide full services under one roof that facilitate short start-up time and minimise transfer costs. The additional capacity reinforces BioPharma Solutions leadership position as one of the largest capacity CMOs for lyophilized cytotoxic parenterals.