AstraZeneca China Wins ISPE Facility of the Year Award

AstraZeneca China’s market supply solid-dose facility located in Taizhou, China, is the overall winner of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) Facility of the Year Award, the society announced on Nov. 10, 2015 at its annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA. The project had received the 2015 award for the Project Execution category in March.

The 533,000-ft² facility, which can manufacture five billion tablets per year for the China market, was completed in a record time of 20 months, coming in 18% under budget and maintaining an exemplary safety record of 3.26 million hours worked without a recordable incident.

“The Taizhou Supply Site Project is the perfect representation of the FOYA program,” said ISPE president and CEO John Bournas in a press release. “AstraZeneca China’s mission to deliver high-quality pharmaceuticals to China’s growing population was carried out seamlessly through first-rate global engineering and operational organization. It demonstrates visionary pharmaceutical excellence undertaken in an emerging market.”

AstraZeneca China’s project team impressed the judges with its clear strategic plan. The team incorporated lean design principles to eliminate operational inefficiencies and deliver optimum manufacturing performance. With a 99% API-removal rate from waste water, the facility far exceeded local environmental regulations.

The Taizhou supply-site project was built to support the Chinese government’s “Healthy China 2020” program to provide universal healthcare access to all of China by the year 2020.  With two additional phases expected, the Taizhou Supply Site has the potential to expand to nine billion tablets per year, placing AstraZeneca in a position to supply China with safe and affordable medicine for more than one billion people, the press release stated.

Other category winners announced in March were Astellas Pharma in the Equipment Innovation category, IDT Biologika in the Facility Integration category, and Pharmalucence with a Honorable Mention for execution and entrepreneurial spirit. Applications for ISPE’s 2016 Facility of the Year Awards are due Nov. 23, 2015.

Source: ISPE