Pharmaceutical Asset Management: What is the Optimal Approach?

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing many changes today, three of which in particular are having a major impact of the asset needs of drug manufacturers: the shift away from the development of blockbuster drugs to a focus on smaller-volume therapies that target diseases affecting sub-segments of the patient population; the increasing focus on biologic drugs at the expensive of small molecule APIs; and the growing adoption of single-use systems throughout the production process. The growing interest in continuous processing could perhaps be considered a fourth factor.

As a result of the evolution of the pharmaceutical industry, the conventional approach of constructing large, multipurpose, stainless-steel based facilities for large-volume manufacturing is not longer applicable for most of the drug products coming to market today. Interest in modular facilities that can be rapidly built in locations close to the targeted population is growing, particularly for biologic drugs. Smaller-scale single-use systems can also be more rapidly installed, often in much smaller spaces and in some cases in existing, non-purpose-built structures. We discussed such approaches for modular manufacturing in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manufacturing, and & Marketplace Report.

What, then, is to be done with the existing infrastructure? Is there a way to still leverage the equipment and facilities that exist? Is the only practical answer to shutdown these locations and minimize any losses? Or is there a way to breathe new life into older sites and process equipment in some way that will maximize the return on the investment?

What has your company done with older plants and production equipment that has been replaced with single-use systems or smaller, strategically placed modular facilities? Have you accessed the used equipment market, and if so, how have you leveraged these pre-existing assets? What are other options?

Gain a further perspective on asset management of pharmaceutical equipment in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manufacturing, and & Marketplace Report.

And don’t forget. If you haven’t already, you can sign up for the Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manufacturing & Marketplace Report here. Also check out the Pharmaceutical Technology/Biopharm International Marketplace at www.pharmabiomarketplace.com.

Cynthia Challener, PhD

Editor

The Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manufacturing & Marketplace Report