Fabricating much of the facility off-site allows Pharmadule to perform operations in parallel, which it claims can reduce construction timelines. Furthermore, creating the facility in Pharmadule’s workshop ensures a very high and predictable level of quality, according to the company.
Silcor will be aware of these benefits, having previously bought a facility from Pharmadule. The new biotech production facility will be made according to European Union and US quality standards and Pharmadule expects to deliver it to the site in Vilnius, Lithuania by January 2011.
Under the terms of the contract, financial details of which were not disclosed, Pharmadule will design, fabricate, install and validate the facility. In its workshop Pharmadule can test run the plant at full scale before sending it to the site where it is assembled, commissioned and validated.
Pharmadule has previously signed contracts with Baxter Healthcare and AstraZeneca. The deal with AstraZeneca was for an expansion of the big pharma’s manufacturing facility in Wuxi, China, a region that Pharmadule is now targeting.
In February the company strengthened its presence in China by partnering with Morimatsu Group. The deal gives Morimatsu the right to produce Pharmadule’s modular facilities.
Lars Martinsson, CEO of Pharmadule, believes that “to serve the rapidly growing market in China, local presence is essential”, adding that Morimatsu has significant experience of producing pharma equipment in the country.
Morimatsu’s capacity in Shanghai, China supplements Pharmadule’s workshop in Tallinn, Estonia.