Meet Nephron Pharmaceuticals - 2017 FOYA Honorable Mention Winner

Nephron Pharmaceuticals is one of three 2017 Facility of the Year^® Honorable Mention winners for their Nephron SC project in West Columbia, SC USA. Projects selected for recognition with an Honorable Mention Award are typically projects that utilize new technology or are located in a challenging region of the world. These projects do not win for a specific category but are clearly successful projects that overcame significant challenges in planning, execution, and delivery, and deserve recognition for their achievements. Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a woman-owned manufacturer of generic inhalation solutions and is the world’s largest Blow/Fill/Seal (BFS) manufacturing company by total capacity. In 2001, prior to FDA’s 2004 mandate, Nephron led the market in the development and release of individually wrapped and bar-coded medication. Individually wrapped and bar-coded vials are a major patient safety feature and are now standard treatments in the bedside safety practices of US hospitals. The company has manufactured and distributed 1+ billion vials annually since 2009.

Nephron’s new state-of-the-art, FDA licensed facility in West Columbia, SC is over 400,000 square feet that houses 8 BFS filling suites with room for 6 more, plus a full service Analytical Services Laboratory, R&D Laboratory and Microbiology Laboratory. Nephron’s South Carolina facility was designed to efficiently produce several different products in BFS vials. To accomplish this, several features were built into the facility to maximize productivity and flexibility including: Automated Filling via Blow/Fill/Seal technology; Automated Warehousing; Automated Packaging; Laboratory Information Management System and MODA; and Plant-wide OSISoft PI historian and MIS.

Nephron’s plant design was intended to create an environment where the manufacturing process is highly visible and accessible to visiting customers, students, and other guests. The intent with this accessibility is to encourage learning and increase awareness of automated processes and pharmaceutical processes to people that may otherwise be uninformed of the efforts and technology that are involved in modern high volume sterile manufacturing. ISPE congratulates the Nephron Pharmaceuticals team for their achievements and their FOYA award-winning entry. Learn more about the 2017 FOYA Honorable Mention winner.

Has your company recently designed, built, or renovated a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical or biotechnology facility that is best in its class? Submit an entry into the 2018 ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Program, and your facility may win a coveted Facility of the Year Award.

Facility of the Year Awards Banquet Join ISPE and prominent industry leaders as we recognize th 2017 Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Category Winners for their innovation and creativity in pharmaceutical and biotechnology facility design, construction, and operation, at the FOYA Banquet on the evening of Tuesday, 6 June 2017 in Arlington, VA USA, during the ISPE/FDA/PQRI Quality Manufacturing Conference.