Over-engineering

Over half of the UK's largest pharmaceutical companies are paying up toL3 million ($4.3 million) more than they need for facility validation, out of the L20 million typical costs of a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, according to new research from Shepherd, a design, engineering and construction company with particular expertise in the pharmaceutical industry.

For the study, Shepherd interviewed 52 senior personnel from UK pharmaceutical companies in order to identify ways in which drug companies could cut down their production costs, noting that this could result in more drugs being prescribed on the National Health Service. It asked the executives to identify key issues facing the industry and how these are affecting the production process, and in particular, to discuss the pressures of both cost and speed-to-market of drug production.

The study identified four areas where significant cost-savings could be produced, namely: greater standardization of process equipment and batch sizes; closer team-working between clinical trials and production departments; team-working with suppliers; and more focused validation to meet regulatory requirements more precisely.