Getting prefabricated pharma factory construction right: How to make an informed decision

In today’s world, the biopharma industry faces unique challenges, driven by climate change, a growing global population, and humanitarian crises. This state of the world has resulted in a growing demand for vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and medical technologies. Combined with the complexities of unpredictable demand and inflexibility in production capacities, being a biopharmaceutical manufacturer is no mean feat. It involves a balance of agility, adaptability, affordability and resilience in the face of political, economic, social and public health crises.

Manufacturing biopharmaceutical products is no mean feat. But it certainly is possible to do it and to do it well.

The challenges facing the industry aren’t entirely new. Given evolving lifestyles, epidemiological burdens, demographic trends and climate patterns, the health sector has always had the responsibility of staying on the front foot. And time and again, it has shown that it is up to the challenge.

We needn’t look further back than the Covid-19 pandemic for evidence. While it had disastrous consequences for people’s health and the global economy, the pandemic also showed us that with the right investments, foci and technologies – particularly manufacturing technologies – no challenge is insurmountable.

The pandemic proved that we, as a global community, can not only overcome historic challenges in biopharma development and manufacturing but also set new benchmarks for global health access. Prefabricated pharmaceutical factories were central to this pivotal point in biopharma history.

Prefabricated or modular construction in the biopharma industry.

In the past several decades, prefab or modular construction has been adopted across chemical, food, consumer products, and other industries. With developments in this building construction technology, prefab or modular construction has also increasingly been adopted in the biopharma industry over the past decade.

Given the global challenges we’ve discussed above, this growing preference for modular construction is being driven by the need to optimise for cost, speed, production volumes, flexibility and risk management.

For instance, if you use modular construction to establish, say, a vaccine manufacturing plant, your time to market will reduce to a fraction of what it would have been with traditional construction. Traditional construction, with its time-consuming nature and manual labour requirements, also comes with certain risks like worker safety, noise and air pollution, and more. With modular construction, you minimise these risks. Most importantly, you gain the ability to adapt production to market demand. Whether there is an epidemic, a natural disaster, or a lull in demand, you can scale up or down your production capacity to ensure that you meet population needs while remaining profitable.

Prefabricated construction certainly has massive benefits for your business’s bottom line and growth. But it also has an unparalleled impact on global health. The cost-effectiveness, speed and adaptability of prefabricated factories make biopharma manufacturing more accessible to emerging regions – regions which, in the past, would’ve not even considered the possibility of making their own drugs due to the costs and complexities of the process.

In other words, prefabricated pharmaceutical factories represent a marriage of purpose with profits. They’re ideal for biopharma manufacturers not only in emerging regions but also in developed markets with evolving therapeutic demands.

Choosing to build a prefabricated biopharma factory.

Regardless of geography and market maturity, we always recommend that you, as a biopharma manufacturer, ensure that a modular factory meets your specific requirements. This is because investing in a modular factory isn’t a whim – it is a strategic decision to shift your facility design and manufacturing to a relatively new approach. It has consequences for not only your way of operating but also your budget, workforce, and more.

You should perform a comparative analysis of traditional construction vs prefabrication for the particular specifications of your pharma plant. These are the elements that you should factor in as you perform your assessment.

• Capital investment
• Cost of ownership all through the facility lifecycle
• Utility consumption
• Production schedule
• Speed to market
• Return on investment
• Workforce training requirements
• Flexibility to alter capacity and product type

These are all individual considerations and may vary based on where you are located, the regulatory requirements of your region, the products you manufacture, market maturity, and other contextual factors.

Moreover, what many biopharmaceutical manufacturers fail to realise early on is that the shift to a modular facility is a shift for your entire organisation and not only for those directly involved in the production line. When making the strategic decision to go the prefab route, the following teams should all be consulted and collaborated with to identify any potential challenges to making prefab work for you.

• The C-suite
• Engineering
• Operations
• Finance
• Quality assurance
• Legal and regulatory
• Environmental, social and governance (ESG) monitoring teams

The inputs of all these teams should be considered in your evaluation to ensure that there are no surprises later on in the process.

Finally, your evaluation of whether prefabrication is right for your biopharma manufacturing facility should consider the following factors.

• The performance requirements of your facility, including cleanrooms, waste management, air handling, and more
• The different types of cleanroom construction available to you
• The background, experience and expertise of the engineering partners you have shortlisted as well as the features of their modular cleanroom technology
• The projected impact of modular construction on your budget, schedules, production volumes and workforce requirements
• The environmental benefits – in terms of utility consumption, waste management, recyclability, and resilience to climactic conditions – of a prefabricated plant

Ultimately, prefabricated factories, though easily replicable and scalable, are not one-size-fits-all. Setting one up involves a deep understanding of your biopharma production process as well as expertise in cutting-edge construction technologies. That is why a skilled engineering partner, one with deep biopharma expertise, is indispensable to the success of any prefab pharma project.

PodTech™ is committed to making your modular pharma factory dreams come true. We pride ourselves on our team of experts who identify your particular project needs and commit every effort to deliver the results you deserve. After all, the products you make play a big role in transforming the lives and health of the people you serve. As your partners in this journey, our work, too, impacts people’s lives. And that’s not a responsibility we take lightly.

Reach out to us today to move one step closer towards the goal of true health equity.