Process Automation - First-Class Fast Track

Representing a total investment of around 290 million euros, the Roche facility in Penzberg is the company’s largest biotechnology investment project to date. In the facility, Roche relies on Siemens technology and expertise for the automation, measuring, and control equipment. Penzberg recently won the “Facility of the Year” award.

Since 2005, the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) has presented its annual “Facility of the Year” award in several categories. The award goes to companies in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry that are able to achieve high quality standards and a reduction in production costs by using innovative technologies.

In 2008, the award went to the new “Biologics IV” biotech production facility at the Penzberg site of Roche Diagnostics GmbH. The plant, in which trastuzumab, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in the breast cancer drug Herceptin, is produced, was selected in the “Project Execution” category, from 19 projects in six different countries. The primary basis for the award was the extraordinarily fast project execution. Within just three years, the biotech production facility was planned, built, and put into operation.