Pfizer’s Catalyst Earns Microsoft’s Praise

PharmaManufacturing.com
07/28/2006

By Paul Thomas

Pfizer received Microsoft’s second annual Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Awards, in the manufacturing category, for its Catalyst solution.

Catalyst, developed at Pfizer’s Groton facility over the past several years, is a suite of tools that help engineers to automate API process design, analysis and production planning. It is enabled by Microsoft’s .NET platform, and also relies upon the SQL Server and SharePoint Portal Server. Catalyst allows API process engineers to do critical aspects of their work via a web-based, graphical user interface systems.

As is well known in the industry, process development is often hampered by engineers’ inability to track down critical data, or to transfer that data from site to site to capitalize on a company’s collective intellect. One inevitable result is slower time to market. A team of Pfizer’s Groton engineers met this challenge head on, and set out to reduce the time and effort of finding data and preparing documents, and to find a way to provide useful real-time information that could be shared broadly. The Pfizer team consulted with Microsoft and the two parties initiated the Catalyst project.

The design function of Catalyst provides engineers with stored recipe models, to which information about process materials, equipment, reactions and other key factors is added to generate immediate production recipes.

The planning function allows Catalyst to adapt recipes for other plants based on the unique characteristics of those facilities. It is also used to identify production areas and equipment that may be available and suitable for certain API processes. This could allow Pfizer to better divide production responsibilities between its 12 API plants throughout the world.

The analytical component of Catalyst can be used primarily to readily assess production and, if all is well, generate electronic records for FDA compliance. Should analysis identify a problem with a batch, it can greatly facilitate investigation by putting key production information at the fingertips of the company’s best engineers, regardless of where they are located.