Eli Lilly's Kinsale facility has been deemed the overall winner of the ISPE's 2024 Facility of the Year Awards.
The annual event by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) awarded the title to Lilly because of its advanced synthetic peptide manufacturing platform.
The first-of-its-kind hybrid manufacturing platform utilises solid phase synthesis of small peptide fragments, while also incorporating efficient liquid phase peptide bond-forming chemistry.
By incorporating nanofiltration, digital material tracking and process analytical technology, Eli Lilly boosted its annual throughput while reducing human-related risk to optimise its complex peptide production capabilities.
To build this production site, Lilly's HQ staff trialled the platform's miniaturised prototypes — allowing them to guide design and construction of the building.
According to the ISPE, Eli Lilly received the award for pushing the boundaries of peptide manufacturing, as well as contributing to the new integration of advanced technologies into pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Eli Lilly's Senior Director of Engineering at the Kinsale site, Darragh McDonagh, commented: "Designing this platform and constructing the resulting manufacturing facility presented more barriers than could be imagined, but we brought a group of fantastic people together who were ready to transform the status quo regarding traditional peptide-based medicine manufacturing concepts."
"We are thrilled to be recognised as the 2024 FOYA Overall Winner and it shines a light on our team's dedication to creating a novel industry-leading manufacturing facility that will ultimately bring a more reliable supply of medicine to our patients worldwide."
[Photo credit: International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering]
