Life Sciences Timeline

Fluor performed the design, procurement and construction of the A.H. Robins' pharmaceutical plant in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Fluor provided design and construction services to convert one of Puerto Rico's largest existing manufacturing facilities into a pharmaceutical plant for American Home Products Corporation. The former 600,000-square-foot textile plant was modified to produce 17 different pharmaceutical product lines, including tranquilizers, oral contraceptives and anti-hypertensive drugs. The $60 million renovation includes new manufacturing, warehousing, packaging, labeling and process areas. All manufacturing areas are considered clean areas requiring sophisticated airflow and pressurization control.

Pfizer selected Fluor as their maintenance provider at the Southport, North Carolina Citric Acid Facility from 1985 - 1990.

Fluor was awarded the engineering, procurement, construction management and project management of the greenfield Thomae biotech plant in Biberach, Germany. The large-scale production plant used fermentation technology to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients, e.g., t-PA, a protein capable of dissolving blood clots in the human body.

Schering contracted Fluor to provide detailed engineering, procurement, construction, start-up and validation support services for this $55 million greenfield facility. The plant produced antibiotics and dry bulk chemical intermediates in injectable and intravenous, tablet and capsule forms. Full-scale production, packaging, utilities, warehousing, a Class 100 cleanroom and administrative facilities were constructed and governed by special process design considerations for biochemical fermentation, chemical synthesis, chemical solvent recovery, water for injection, clean-in-place, steam-in-place, clean steam, purified water and deionized water.

Fluor provided design, procurement and construction services for two separate projects and other ongoing small capital projects at Merck, Sharp and Dohme's Puerto Rican operations. The primary projects were additions to an existing plant complex originally built by Fluor. These two high-end technology projects were completed and in production within 23 months. The larger of the two projects provides for bulk production of Ivermectin, a veterinary drug used to treat heartworm in dogs and large animals. Fluor also provided services for an addition to existing facilities which manufacture timolol maleate in bulk, used for ophthalmic treatments and in coronary disease prevention.

Fluor designed a 15,000 square foot pilot lab facility as an addition to an existing pharmaceuticals plant in Palo Alto, California. In addition, Fluor engineered a 116,000 square foot grassroots facility in Vacaville, California.

The primary processes included the manufacture of coated time-release tablets and transdermal. The tableting process included wet granulation, fluid bed dryers, sieving, mulling, tableting, pan coating, laser drilling and printing. The packaging of the tablets includes bottling, cottoning, capping, labeling and cartoning. Tablets were also packaged in blister packs and cartoned. The transdermal process entailed process film casting, lamination, drying, printing, dye-cutting, pouching and cartoning. The trail manufacturing was made up of five packaging lines for the two processes. The processes are equipped with a USP water system, which utilizes two-stage osmosis and a three stage clean-in-place system.

Fluor contracted in 1984 to construct and modify Merck's facility in Elkton, Virginia. The project was later completed in 1989.

Merck, Sharp and Dohme's plant in Wilson, North Carolina was a fast track, design-build project for ingested coated tablets. Only 15 months were required from design commencement to completion of construction. Special clean room environments were integrated into the design, and dust-resistant, cleanable materials were used for the walls and ceilings in the manufacturing areas. Fluor also designed the packaging area. The ingredients and final pharmaceutical formulation were pneumatically conveyed by a dense phase vacuum conveying system selected to eliminate dusting problems and to avoid particle attrition and separation.

Fluor completed the design and construction of a grass-roots multipurpose bulk pharmaceutical facility for the production of various antibiotics (chemical synthesis of cephalosporin derivatives) and herbicides. The intermediates production area consisted of four separate process lines, including GLS reactors, vacuum receivers, and extractor crystallizers. Also included in the multipurpose process area were rotary vacuum filters, pressure plate filters, centrifuges, vacuum dryers, and blenders. The wastewater disposal involved an underground pipeline running six miles from the plant to the sea. The overall production processes were largely computer controlled. Design, procurement and construction was accomplished within a 30-month schedule.

Fluor carried out preliminary engineering, detailed design, procurement and construction of this Bishop, Texas facility for the bulk synthesis of Ibuprofen. At start-up, this facility was the largest ibuprofen facility in the world, producing 3,500 metric tons per year of ibuprofen. The $86 million facility was honored with the prestigious Kirkpatrick Achievement Award because it employed a new process that reduced the six-step, non-catalytic process usually used for ibuprofen production to a three-step, catalytic synthesis. Benefits from the new process included lowered operating costs by avoiding the need for reagents; decreased waste-treatment costs; and lowered costs for compliance with environmental regulations.

Fluor engineered, procured, constructed and assisted with the licensing of Chiron's Fill and Finish Area for beta interferon.

Fluor was contracted in 1996 to provide engineering support for Hoffman-La Roche's Phase 1 Beta-carotene Retrofit project. Subsequently, Fluor was awarded the procurement and construction management of the plant upgrade. The revamp was completed in 1998.

Fluor provided engineering and construction services for a 4-story, $36 million vitamin E manufacturing complex. The 70-acre greenfield site included a manufacturing facility, a warehouse, a maintenance building, administration offices, labs and cleanrooms in the packing areas. Fluor developed a quarter of the site. Vitamin E will be manufactured for human and animal consumption. Because of the extensive use of flammables and irritants, life safety and hazard reduction were especially critical. Production runs started in April 1998.

To facilitate the production of D2E7, a breakthrough monoclonal for the treatment of arthritis, Fluor delivered to Abbott this $35 million expansion, including an 8,000 square-foot warehouse. The 37,000 square-foot manufacturing facility was retrofitted into an existing shell, with Fluor providing multiple levels of engineering services, including process engineering for cell culture, harvest and purification.

Pfizer is one of Ireland's largest pharmaceutical multinationals and leading pharmaceutical sector investor. Fluor provided EPCM and validation services for a $365 million pharmaceutical operations expansion program that included 5 major projects. The projects were a bulk-finishing facility, a multiproduct batch organic synthesis facility, two related organic synthesis facilities, and a central utility building. The Little Island, Cork, Ireland expansion program spanned four years, completing in 2000. The bulk pharmaceutical manufacturing complex produces Lipitor® (atorvastatin), the cholesterol-lowering compound that has become one of the most successful pharmaceutical products ever launched.

Fluor provided conceptual design, engineering, procurement, construction management and validation services to Biogen Idec for the company’s Large Scale Manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Biogen Idec contracted with Fluor to design, build and validate a 250,000-square-foot LSM plant with the capability to run up to 120,000 liters of bioreactor capacity. At the time, it was one of the largest cell culture manufacturing facilities in the world.

Fluor provided construction management services on this large-scale cell culture manufacturing facility. The project included the completion of construction and process work on a campus that provided the production capabilities to supply product to thousands of patients worldwide.

Fluor was selected by Biogen Inc., to build one of the world's largest cell culture manufacturing facilities in Hillerod, Denmark. Fluor performed program and construction management services for the large-scale manufacturing facility, which included a laboratory, administrative offices, warehouse and utility facilities.

Fluor provided conceptual design, preliminary engineering, commissioning and validation for Abbott's ABL cell culture manufacturing plant. This fast-track project included a cell culture manufacturing building with two 12,000-liter fermenters, laboratory and office, warehouse and site utilities on a greenfield site.

Fluor provided a study, engineering, and procurement services to Pfizer for the company's Small-Scale MAbs Facility in Shanbally, Ireland. Pfizer's MAbs SSF is a Phase III clinical trial and initial product launch facility to manufacture, purify, formulate and bulk fill mammalian cell culture-derived protein. The design of the facility provides for maximum flexibility, using disposable bag technology. Fluor implemented value engineering on the project, and Pfizer accepted ideas totaling $4.6 million in savings, a 2.3 percent reduction in total installed cost. Pfizer was awarded the ISPE Facility of the Year Award for Sustainability in 2010.

Grifols chose Fluor to be their partner on the engineering, procurement, construction management and commissioning of the North Fractionation Facility, or NFF project. Augmenting the existing Clayton facility in North Carolina, the NFF project includes a 160,000-square-foot fractionation expansion which allows Grifols a 43 percent increase over their previous plasma processing capacity. In 2014, Grifols' North Fractionation Facility was named the ISPE 2014 Facility of the Year for Project Execution.

Shire (now a part of Takeda) built a 100-acre greenfield campus in Covington Georgia. The campus includes 1.2 million square feet of building space, including a wastewater treatment facility, manufacturing buildings, laboratory buildings, administrative buildings and a central utility building. The campus separates plasma components, purifies them and makes life-sustaining therapies used to treat burn victims and patients with immune disorders, hemophilia and other medical conditions.

Fluor provided engineering services for CSL Behring’s plasma fractionation facility expansion in Kankakee, Illinois. The expansion will increase the production of plasma intermediates, supporting the growing need for its life saving and life-improving therapies that are used to treat patients with rare and serious medical disorders around the world.