New Sterile Vaccine Fill Finish Facility, Pfizer

About this project

DPS executed engineering, design and procurement for a new 5,000 sq.m vial fill finish facility at Pfizer Puurs, Belgium. This facility was designed to produce over 50 million vials a year of a vaccine product. The facility is a standalone segregated facility with scope for expansion to accommodate future vaccine products and was designed for a cold chain product to facilitate the filling of single dose and multi-dose vials in a high speed isolated filling line. DPS also provided key project resources through the construction, commissioning and verification phase.

Some of the key attributes of the facility were:

• Low cost of goods achieved through lean facility design
• High volumes (> 80M vials per annum) ; maximise use of process modelling to ensure optimal equipment sizing and cycle time
• Flexibility to manage change in demand and mix of single and multi-dose
• Challenging process; investigations on manufacturing strategy ongoing through the design
• Balance of Segregation and Integration with existing site
• Automation – fully integrated automation system and MES
• Expandability
• Sustainability – energy efficiency and operational strategy were early phase considerations
• Aggressive Schedule – 18 months from start of construction to product batches
• ASTM E2500 Verification Strategy

The installation included a multi-vessel formulation suite and isolated filling line with automated materials handling system as well as all standalone clean utilities and tie in to existing black utility systems.