One Plus One is Greater Than Two for Migrating Pharmaceutical Processes

To compound the complexity of the decision-making process we also identified the need for a supplier that already had a significant pedigree in this market and understood international demands.

And, just to make them work really hard, we needed a modular and scalable solution – we weren’t going to jump in with both feet, we wanted to see a pilot project that could be scaled up and migrated across our existing infrastructure. We needed an organisation that would hold our hand and lead us towards an optimum solution.

Each stage of this planning process saw more and more suppliers falling by the wayside as we culled the list of potential suitors down to a select few.

I am pleased to say that we eventually opted for one that said the right things, had the right solutions, knew precisely what we wanted and knew the pharmaceutical industry inside out. More importantly, they give us the all-important peace of mind.

So, where are we now? This process started two years ago and we have made huge strides. From the very first step of knowing the best time to start the evolution, we have since developed a pilot project based in a new development at one of our plants, which is running in parallel with an existing line, so we can compare results.

In terms of deliverables we are expecting efficiency gains, far greater data integrity, more stringent adherence to industry and legislative requirements, better process control and, of course, better quality levels.

We can now show our customers and the industry in general that we are in line with GMP guidelines and that we can offer traceability and serialisation for all production parameters.

There aren’t many suppliers that could offer what we needed, even fewer had the necessary industry experience and only one gave us the peace of mind we were looking for all along. This is a complicated process and, sure, it has its risks, but find the right supplier and life becomes immeasurably easier.