Custom Manufacturing of Fine Chemicals in a cGMP Multipurpose Plant. An Opportunity for a Niche Player

Abstract

A brief background of the (pharmaceutical) fine chemicals market is given. Based on the requirements of the market, the critical design parameters of a cGMP multipurpose plant are discussed. A model is presented which describes the relative influence of various key-cost factors on the overall performance of the plant. The reference facility used in this study is the cGMP multipurpose plant which is currently being constructed at the Rohner site in Pratteln, Switzerland. The impact of selected technical parameters (reactor volume, campaign size, change-overtime, etc.) on the performance of the plant is discussed. In view of a high labor cost situation (e.g. Switzerland), the relevance of the capital investment costs versus labor costs is investigated. A benchmark comparison is made with five different cGMP multipurpose plants which compares the capital investment costs with the capacity.