"Facility Of The Year" Finalist Uses Gore™ Lyoguard® Freeze-Drying Trays

Elkton, MD - W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., announces that it was selected as the sole supplier of freeze-drying trays being used in Daiichi Asubio Pharma Co., Ltd.'s (ASUBIO) new plant — a finalist in the "Facility of the Year" competition.

ASUBIO recently opened a new, multi-product, multi-scale facility for bulk biopharmaceutical products in Japan. ASUBIO's specifications included a small-scale manufacturing line for clinical trials as well as a large-scale line for commercial production.

To meet the challenges of maximizing efficiency while preventing cross-contamination, ASUBIO equipped the facility with a freeze-drying process that uses single-use, autoclavable GORE™ LYOGUARD® Freeze-Drying Trays. Because Gore's trays are considered to be closed systems, ASUBIO realized the benefit of reducing the cross-contamination that can occur with open stainless-steel trays typically used for bulk freeze-drying (or lyophilization) applications. Using a Gore membrane that balances filtration efficiency with vapor transmission, GORE™ LYOGUARD® Freeze-Drying Trays reduce the risk of contaminating the compounds, while allowing customers to increase lyophilization yields and optimize throughput for their often expensive products. As an added benefit, the trays also reduce worker exposure to potentially potent pharmaceutical compounds.
"In short, ASUBIO took advantage of an ideal opportunity to benefit from GORE™ LYOGUARD® trays," says Gore's global product manager Joseph Brendle. "Because ASUBIO's new plant is a multi-product facility, our trays allow them to reduce the capital cost of the facility significantly by reducing the amount of cleanroom area, while virtually eliminating the potential for cross-contamination."

GORE™ LYOGUARD® Freeze-Drying Trays are quite versatile in that they can be included in new facility specifications as well as retrofitted to existing freeze-dryers with minimal or no extra cost. Brendle continues, "Our product has been used internationally in over 250 new and existing applications, ranging from research and development to approved commercial production. Over the past five years, we have found that using LYOGUARD® Trays has resulted in improved yield, increased worker safety, improved product cycle-time, and decreased costs."

SOURCE: W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.,