Finalists Named For Pharmaceutical Industry Facility Of The Year Award

Tampa, FL - Six pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities located in Belgium, Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States have been selected for recognition in the second annual Facility of the Year Award competition sponsored by ISPE, INTERPHEX, and Pharmaceutical Processing magazine. Five of the companies - AstraZeneca, Baxter BioPharma Solutions, Daiichi Asubio Pharma Co., Ltd., Janssen Pharmaceutica, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals - have been named finalists. The sixth company - Biolex Therapeutics - was selected for special merit recognition. The winner of the 2006 Facility of the Year Award competition will be announced 22 March 2006 at the INTERPHEX Conference and Exhibition at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

"Following the incredible success of last year's inaugural Facility of the Year Award competition, this year's 2006 submissions are proving to recognize and amplify the significance of this critical sector of the global pharmaceutical industry," said Robert P. Best, President and Chief Executive Officer of ISPE, the leading not-for-profit society of pharmaceutical manufacturing professionals worldwide.

Now in its second year, the Facility of the Year Award competition spotlights the accomplishments, shared commitment, and dedication of individuals in companies worldwide to innovate and advance pharmaceutical manufacturing technology for the benefit of all global consumers. This year's Facility of the Year Award promotes technological innovation across the industry.

Each of the submissions was reviewed by an international blue-ribbon judging panel representing the pharmaceutical design, construction and manufacturing sectors. "These judges have expressed great interest in highlighting facilities that demonstrate innovation and technology in the pharmaceutical industry and recognizing their outstanding accomplishments," said Peter Bigelow, Judging Panel Chair and Senior Vice President, Consumer Healthcare Manufacturing, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

2006 Facility of the Year Award Finalists
AstraZeneca's facility in Macclesfield, UK was chosen for its Large Scale Laboratory (LSL) Project. AstraZeneca (AZ) is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. The LSL has been a highly successful venture between AstraZeneca and its Alliance Partners to deliver a state-of-the-art facility enabling Campaign 2 (C2) manufacture of drug substance for volunteer studies to be taken off the critical path. In addition to being able to satisfy patients' needs sooner, this represents a significant business advantage for each successful compound produced. Additionally, the asset provides an optimum range of manufacturing technologies at differing scales in a creative layout. Process streams are rapidly configurable and have novel, yet simple, containment options to suit the compound being processed, without compromising operability.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. provided full service project engineering and services for the project, with particular emphasis on Architectural, Containment and Process Engineering consultancy in the early phases.

Baxter BioPharma Solutions Baxter BioPharma Solutions' Bloomington, IN, USA facility was selected as a finalist for its Phase IV Vial and Syringe Filling project. Baxter offers a complete spectrum of integrated, proprietary technologies and contract services to its pharma and biotech partners. Baxter identified a need to provide fast and flexible contract services to respond to changing demands and market pressures on pharmaceutical companies to get products to market at the most cost effective and expedient way possible. The benefit is faster turn-around time and cost savings. The Bloomington facility's Phase IV expansion is designed to provide that benefit with large-scale syringe filling, aseptic formulation, vial filling, lyophilization, terminal sterilization, and flexible formulation capacity for a variety of challenging products such as insoluble solutions and vaccines.

The manufacturing portion of the facility was a design/build project provided by Pharamadule AB, a provider of modular facilities for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry.

Daiichi Asubio Pharma Co., Ltd. (ASUBIO) facility of Tokyo, Japan, has been chosen for its NBP (New Bio Plant) project. A member of the Daiichi Pharmaceutical Group, ASUBIO is focusing on the development of innovative ethical drugs through new technologies, notably in the biotechnology field. ASUBIO performs R&D in support of the company's technologies to be applied in the production of proteins and peptides, as well as in its mass production capabilities. ASUBIO's New Bio Plant is a multi-product and multi-scale "Launch Plant" for bio bulk products adopting unique processes, making it a first in Japan. As a launch plant, new drugs will be distributed to consumers directly from the plant.

JGC Corporation, a leading Japanese company in the pharmaceutical area, was awarded the contract for the engineering and construction of ASUBIO's New Bio Plant. JGC's expertise accumulated over more than 25 years, covers API plants to secondary facilities, as well as R&D facilities, and includes Bio and Tissue engineering. The company provides full-scope turnkey services, from Conceptual Studies through C&Q.

Janssen Pharmaceutica was nominated for its Facility: Small Volume Area in Geel, Belgium. The Janssen Pharmaceutica site in Geel has played a crucial role within Johnson & Johnson in producing pharmaceutically active ingredients for medicines. About two-thirds of the worldwide chemical production in the pharmaceutical sector of Johnson & Johnson is supplied by the Chemical Production plant in Geel. The facility is for handling highly potent powders and is one of four separate state-of-the-art production installations comprising the High Containment Production Chain. Consistent with the so-called containment technology, these installations are fully enclosed and, as a result, substantially enhance quality and safety. The facility combines state-of-the-art milling installation and high-technology separation with the aid of glove boxes, or isolators.

Engineering for this project was provided by Janssen Chemical Production Engineering.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals was named for The Wyeth BioPharma Campus at Grange Castle project located in Dublin, Ireland. With research and development (R&D) programs focused on small molecules, vaccines, and biotechnology, Wyeth is exploring more than 60 new therapies for medical conditions such as diabetes, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV, Alzheimer's disease, and schizophrenia. This new facility was developed to meet the demand for Enbrel and Prevenar and provides strategic manufacturing capacity for all other biological projects. The result is the largest fully integrated facility ever built in single phase. The facility was designed to meet current needs and future capabilities and is capable of manufacturing bulk drug substance and fill-finishing biologics, vaccines, and antibiotics on one campus.

Jacobs Lend Lease - JLL (a joint venture between Jacobs Engineering and Bovis Lend Lease) was awarded contract as Designer/Construction Manager for the Wyeth project.

Special Merit Recognition
Biolex Therapeutics facility located in Pittsboro, North Carolina, USA has been selected for special merit recognition for its Pittsboro Phase II Facility Expansion project. Biolex Therapeutics applies its unique drug development capabilities and expertise to commercialize complex proteins and monoclonal antibodies that until now have been impossible or very expensive to develop through traditional means. Biolex has an extensive, multi-protein strategic alliance with Centocor and collaborations with other pharmaceutical/biotech companies including Medarex, MedImmune, and OctoPlus. The company is also advancing a proprietary pipeline of product candidates including Locteron(tm), a next-generation controlled-release form of alfa interferon. By emphasizing project simplicity, the GMP facility was completed from the beginning of design through IQ/OQ validation in only five months. Additionally, the project was delivered under budget, with no safety incidents, and with superior quality.

O'Neal Inc. was contracted as the engineering design and construction firm for the project. O'Neal Inc. offers architectural, engineering and construction services, specializing in design and planning, programming, validation for cGMP facilities

Facility of the Year Activities at INTERPHEX
Take advantage of this opportunity to learn first-hand about the facilities being honored as "best in their class" by attending the following events taking place at INTERPHEX2006. To register and for more information visit http://www.interphex.com.

• Announcement of Finalists and Winner, Wednesday, 22 March (INTERPHEX Day 2)
  The announcement will be made at 08:45, prior to the keynote presentation.
  
• Meet the Finalists - Facility of the Year Exhibit
  Located in Hall 1C, Lower Level, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center - This is the opportunity to meet personally with representatives of the finalists' facilities to discuss the success stories associated with these pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. It will also provide a chance to learn more about the projects that have designated these facilities as "best in class." Specific information will be available including key data and statistics, pictures, and schematics of the finalist's facilities