Exyte played a key role in the development of a new compounding pharmacy for Canton Zurich hospitals.

Exyte provided engineering design in concert with a local architecture firm, procurement and construction management. Design involved process equipment including Zytostatica automatic filling, sterile filling, formulation and non-sterile filling; clean utilities covering cleanroom air conditioning, aqua purificata, water for injection, medicinal gases, and environmental monitoring system; and black utilities covering heating, chilled water, steam, sanitary, and cold rooms.

The KAZ replaced and integrated two outdated hospital pharmacies that were unable to continue serving the progressive needs of the community, and were occupying valuable and desirable space in the medical facility. QC Labs, Microbiology, Warehouses and Logistics functions were also moved into and consolidated in this new facility. Early planning for a way forward was started in 2010. With a commitment at the outset that operational excellence starts with an excellent capital project, the development team was able to claim success by meeting very tight schedule targets established by a complex logistics plan to demobilize the existing hospital pharmacy operations. The team met a budget set at the beginning that could not vary because of the financing arrangement. And lastly, safety performance achieved a zero LTI rate. Today, the KAZ provides the Canton of Zurich hospital system a range of oral, dermal and parenteral formulations, often with patient specific recipes.

The facility is highly flexible, adaptable and expandable to easily and quickly accommodate new functions, such as the rapidly emerging field of personalized medicine. All products are manufactured under industrial cGMP conditions, a major step change that is new to hospital pharmacies and their workers. This facility raised the bar for quality performance to cGMP levels which had never been done before in a hospital compounding facility.

Kantonsapotheke Zurich not only winner of ISPE’s 2019 FOYA for Operational Excellence but also the FOYA overall award

The award was announced on 2 April 2019 at the ISPE Europe Annual Conference in Dublin, Ireland. On 30 October Kantonsapotheke was also honored as the best project from the eight category submittals (ISPE's 2019 Facility of the Year Awards Overall Winner). Exyte sincerely congratulates its client on this successes. The facility Kantonsapotheke Zurich (KAZ) is a true shift forward, as a confluence of ideas, leadership, technology, finance and marketplace. It leads the very concept of hospital pharmacies into the future and establishes benchmarks of operational excellence never seen before in patient focused facilities.

ISPE’s annual FOYA Awards identify the best projects around the world in Life Science, recognizing  innovation and creativity in technology, regulatory compliance, operations and business practices. Exyte is pleased to have been the design-build partner bringing this project from concept to startup.

“Working in concert with the leadership team of Kantonapotheke Zurich, Exyte provided engineering, procurement, construction management and validation that led to the development of this technologically-advanced facility”, outlines François Abiven, President Life Sciences & Chemicals at Exyte.

Life Sciences & Chemicals is the second largest strategic business segment of Exyte measured by sales revenue. Exyte is a provider and integrator of technology advanced solutions, including design, construction and commissioning to deliver complex processing plants. For this segment Exyte provides a full range of services: consulting & planning, engineering, project management, construction, commissioning and qualification for customers in the pharmaceuticals & biotechnology, food & nutrition, consumer care and specialty chemicals industries.

Operational excellence benchmark sets a new standard

The KAZ has replaced and integrated two outdated hospital pharmacies that had been unable to continue serving the progressive needs of the community. Today, the facility provides the Canton of Zurich hospital system a range of oral, dermal and parenteral formulations, often with patient-specific recipes. It is highly flexible, adaptable and expandable to easily and quickly accommodate new functions, such as the rapidly emerging field of personalized medicine. All products are manufactured under industrial cGMP conditions, a major step change that is new to hospital pharmacies and their workers.

According to Armin Uwira, Head of Engineering at Exyte in Switzerland: “KAZ is the first of a kind, a technically, financially and operationally superior facility serving hospital patients. It has achieved an astonishing performance record of 60 to 90 minutes turnaround from diagnostic test and prescription to patient injection for cytotoxic compounds used oncology. The facility raises the bar of quality and drives the use of cGMP protocols and behavior into hospital pharmacies.”

Five Reasons  why KAZ won the  Operational Excellence Award

1. Raise the bar of Quality:
Drive use of cGMP protocols and behavior into Hospital Pharmacies.

2. Increase Speed of Patient Therapy:
Streamlined Cytostatic production/ logistics that achieves 60 - 90 mins turnaround from diagnostic analysis to patient injection.

3. Improve Safety and Reduce Costs:
Use Robotics to reduce exposure and eliminate ergonomic diseases resulting from repetitive movements.

4. Drive Technology Forward:
Data acquisition and management structured for personalized medicines.

5. Optimize Workforce:
Bring two hospital pharmacies together under one geographically remote production site and consolidate global supply chain of medicines to yield lower patient costs.

Contact us

If you would like to know, how a state-of-the art approach to just-in-time drug fabrication looks like for your business, do not hesitate to send an e-mail to info.bls(at)exyte.net - we will get back to you soon!

News: FOYA Overall Winner

Key Features

• Oral, transdermal, sterile and cytotoxic dosage forms 
• Robotic Sterile Fill and Cytotoxic filling operations 
• Transparency with glass wall systems to drive cGMP behavior by workforce 
• Innovative financing model 
• Flexible and adaptable facility to accommodate changing patient conditions and product portfolios 
• Cosolidation of manufacturing activities on one floor with operational flexibility 
• Multi-functional and multi-product facility with complex quality management to avoid cross contamination 
• Just-in-time production, testing, and delivery

About ISPE

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) is the world’s largest not-for-profit association serving its members through leading scientific, technical, and regulatory advancement across the entire pharmaceutical lifecycle. 

Visit www.ISPE.org for more information.