PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT BUILT IN NEW RECORD TIME: 14½ MONTHS

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PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT BUILT IN NEW RECORD TIME: 14½ MONTHS
16 December 2004 - NNE A/S

On 16 December NNE formally completed the hand-over process for a new plant for purification of insulin analogues. The 7,000 m2 greenfield project is built in Kalundborg, Denmark, for the healthcare company Novo Nordisk A/S, and the plant has been constructed in only 14½ months from the granting of initial funding to start of Performance Qualification.

This is a new time record for NNE and an interim culmination of several years of striving to develop the NNE Modular Engineering concept into uniqueness. The fundamental principle is to redesign the project and divide it into many smaller projects which can be carried out separately and in parallel. Also, a distinct use of standard components, methods and procedures has made a large contribution to the short construction time. Furthermore, as a new step, this greenfield project has benefited from a completely modularised automation system that is built and tested off-site, the same way as the process units, pipes, vessels etc are.

A few years ago NNE set itself the challenging task of becoming the first engineering company in the world to be able to build pharmaceutical and biotechnological factories in only 12 months. The strive for the 12-month factory is a response to the growing need for fast-track solutions from the life science industry, for whom time is becoming an increasingly critical factor.

- I had just started as general manager in NNE, when we generated the challenge concerning the 12-month factory, Hans Ole Voigt says. - Setting up and striving for such an ambitious goal has had an extremely important impact on the organisation. Obviously, it requires a good portion of the pioneer spirit to improve the working processes constantly and find more effective solutions. And, maybe most important, the destination can only be reached with focused, persistent and shared efforts from all employees. Fourteen and a half months is very close to our goal, and we are continuously identifying new potentials for improving efficiency, so in fact I consider us as good as there, concludes Hans Ole Voigt.

The next challenge for NNE concerning the actual insulin purification project is to help the client bring the plant fast and securely through the Performance Qualification and Process Validation phases, up to production start.

The former fast-track record for greenfield projects was made when NNE built a plant in 18 months for the production of NovoSeven for Novo Nordisk.

http://nne.dk/

About: NNE A/S
With more than 80 years of experience, the engineering company NNE is a leading supplier of systems, consultancy and engineering services to the international pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry.

Our competencies span all technical disciplines applying to engineering, construction, validation, start-up and optimisation, and reconstruction of facilities for product development and production plants, pilot plants and laboratories within the pharmaceutical and biotechnological field.

Our unmistakable, clear client focus, combined with a flexible and integrated organisation where engineers, architects and pharmacists work closely together, puts us in a position to deliver customised solutions, ranging from stand-alone services to turnkey plants - quickly and safely.

NNE operates at an international level. We have worked on and completed a large number of projects both in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia, and we have constructed biotechnological and pharmaceutical production facilities in USA, China, Japan, Brazil, and France.

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