With a brand new site in Geneva, a more efficient distribution structure and a robust pipeline, Ferring Pharmaceuticals now has plans to expand into treatments used by infertility specialists. Susan Birks visited the company to learn more of its grand designs
In April, Ferring Pharmaceuticals opened its new pharma headquarters and production site in St Prex, Switzerland. The stylish three-story 100,000m2 facility overlooking lake Geneva not only provides offices for 160 employees, it also houses production, packaging, storage and quality control operations that are run by a further 200 production staff.
The biopharmaceutical company, which develops, makes and markets products in the fields of urology, gynaecology, obstetrics, gastroenterology and endocrinology, will initially produce two products - Minirin and Pentasa - on the site. But it also has the capacity to handle new pipeline products and to support solid dose formulations.
Set up by Dr Frederik Paulsen under the name Nordiska Hormon Laboratoriet in Sweden in the 1950s, the company is still family-owned. An innovator in the field of peptides, it has several products currently on the market. Among its most established are: Minirin, for bed wetting (primary nocturnal enuresis and nocturia); Menopur, its fastest growing product for patients undergoing ovulation induction or in vitro fertilisation; Tractocile for the treatment of preterm labour and Pentasa (mesalazine) for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.
The company spends heavily on r&d, reinvesting 16% of annual sales, according to senior vice-president of r&d, Alan Harris. It is a long-term policy that appears to be paying off: the number of new product registrations now stands at 121 worldwide. Projects currently in the development stage are FE 106 483, a G-protein coupled receptor agonist identified as an orally active anti-diuretic; degarelix, a potent and selective GnRH antagonist for treatment of prostate cancer, and barusiban, a second generation oxytocin receptor inhibitor providing faster and longer lasting action for delaying preterm birth.
biologic capabilities
Over the past two decades the company has achieved an average annual growth rate of 15%, and in 2005 turnover was just under Euro 700m. Last year it also acquired Israel-based business Biotechnology General (BTG) from Savient Pharmaceuticals. This has given Ferring access to technologies and production expertise in recombinant human growth hormone therapies, sodium hyaluronate and cell culture fermentation at the biologic manufacturing facility at Beer Tuvia. Most of the company's other production is carried out at plants in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic. It also has research centres in the UK and the US, and an international service centre and development centre located in Denmark.
With plants and offices in 40 countries employing 2,700 people, the company currently has a fairly complex supply chain. Now, with the completion of St Prex, Ferring is implementing a plan to simplify its logistics. In future, production of all bulk products will be supplied direct to St Prex, where they can be stored and despatched on to the marketing and sales companies, thus presenting one face to all its marketing and sales customers.
continuous operation
In terms of manufacturing, the new St Prex facility is kitted out for closed processing of peptides for oral administration (in tablet format), and for one-pot processing operations - such as blending, granulation and drying - for which the company has its own process patents. The site will also house a pilot plant to aid scale-up.
Ferring has taken advantage of the new build to move towards continuous processing of solid dosage tablets, introducing larger batch sizes, which in turn reduces materials handling and QC costs. The company now has the capacity to produce some 7.5 tonnes of solid dosage product per week on the site, using closed processes to avoid operator exposure to actives. It has a separate suite of rooms for tablet compression and for batch coating, and all filling and packing operations have been automated. The third floor houses extensive QA and QC facilities.
The company is aiming to run three shifts a day by the end of the year. Some production will be also be relocated from the plant in Denmark which, as announced in 2003, has been scheduled to close. The company also plans to produce sachets once the required plant approvals have been obtained and expects the first batches to be produced by the end of 2006.
Finally, the St Prex site also includes a new automated storage facility that will be key in the implementation of its new logistics set-up.
future plans
The company has high hopes for its GnRH antagonist which it says provides a "breakthrough in prostrate cancer treatment". Should the company be successful in getting it to market, it could "change the whole dynamics of the company", says senior vice-president Aron Graf. Meanwhile, the first-of-its-kind orally active non-peptide antidiuretic, FE 106 483, is going through Phase II trials, and the company is working on FE 200 440 oxytocin antagonist, said to advance the treatment of preterm labour.
With the success rate for infertility treatment currently standing at 25%, the company sees a future in becoming a specialist supplier of products to the infertility specialist. With its new building and structures in place, Ferring is certainly enjoying something of a rebirth itself.