Facility of the Future Library

Editor’s Note: This Facility of the Future page began with our cover story in the November/December 2009 issue of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine. That story, “Flexible Pharma: Puzzling Out the Plant of the Future,” is below. As part of our coverage, we received input from some of the leading experts in the industry—their visionary contributions are at right. And in the boxes below are white papers and news items that look towards the future of the pharmaceutical industry. We welcome your contributions!

Flexible Pharma: Puzzling Out the Plant of the Future
The need to improve agility and reduce financial risk is driving new approaches to plant design and operation, and the use of new technologies.

For years now, observers have said that pharmaceutical manufacturing must become more agile and that the industry faces a “sea change” in the way that it handles R&D and manufacturing. The last decade, like those that preceded it, has been marked by mergers, and many large, single-product facilities have been closed down. Yet, on the surface, little appears to have changed. Facilities have not become automated, “lights out” plants, continuous manufacturing is still relegated to specific niches, and PAT and QbD have not started a revolution, although they are gradually being applied, or at least studied by more companies.

However, the scene has been set for drastic change. In the U.S., discussions of healthcare reform bring the prospect of higher production levels and lower drug prices, while the likely approval of follow-on biogenerics promises to shave years off the marketable life cycle of biotech drugs. Is this the calm before the post-blockbuster storm? Read More.