Biocon Biologics bags 2021 Facility of the Year Award

This is the first time that a biopharmaceutical company from India has been awarded an ISPE FOYA Honorable Mention. Every year, ISPE's FOYA program recognizes state-of-the-art projects utilizing new, innovative technologies to improve the quality of products, reduce the cost of producing high-quality medicines and demonstrate advances in project delivery.

Biocon Biologics' new 340,000-square feet B3 facility is being built in a modular manner to allow for expansion into Phase 2. This is one of the largest monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) manufacturing facilities in India in terms of built area for a single building/site. The first phase of the facility has been built at an investment of ~USD 120 million.

The facility will enhance the Company's manufacturing capacity for mAbs manifold and improve its ability to enable affordable access for patients across the globe. The facility is intended for commercial and clinical manufacturing for global regulated markets, including the U.S. and Europe. The Phase I of the facility has completed qualification and is preparing for commercialization.

Shreehas Tambe, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Biocon Biologics said: "The ISPE Facility of the Year Award is a proud moment for us at the Biocon Group. This prestigious award is a recognition of Biocon Biologics' design, project management, execution capabilities and above all the determination of the entire team to succeed despite the several challenges of 2020. I would like to acknowledge the remarkable collaboration between the project team, various functions, our consultants, partners, vendors for their tireless efforts which allowed us to successfully complete and commission this award-winning biologics manufacturing facility."

"Biocon Biologics' project team clearly articulated their understanding of an environmental impact associated with such a large facility and demonstrated their focused efforts to minimize the impact through multiple sustainability elements built within the facility design. In addition to the environmental impact, this project team demonstrated a superior execution approach in managing construction safety," said the FOYA Judging Committee.

The project was completed on schedule and within budget in a period of 24 months from start of construction. This fast track project was achieved with around 3 million safe man hours.

The B3 facility has been built in a sustainable manner to ensure maximum energy conservation and the design of equipment and facility is well optimized to reduce operational expenses.

The other FOYA category winners this year were:

• Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG (Facility Integration)
• ElevateBio (Operational Excellence)
• Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG (Process Intelligence and Innovation)
• Janssen Sciences Ireland (Project Execution)
• Government Pharmaceutical Organization (Social Impact)
• Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Special Recognition Awards for Operational Agility: COVID-19 Impact)
• Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (Special Recognition Awards for Operational Agility: COVID-19 Impact)
• Locus Biosciences (Honorable Mention)
• Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics (Honorable Mention)