The ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Celebrates 20 Years of Innovation and Excellence in Pharma

While FOYA typically focuses on the future, this milestone warrants a celebration of the program and its winners, recognizing their numerous accomplishments. One notable achievement is FOYA's extensive reach: Over the past 20 years, 136 winners have been recognized across 24 countries on four continents. Estimating the number of people involved in or impacted by these award-winning facilities—whether as project participants, visitors, service providers, clients, or employees—is challenging. Even more difficult is estimating the number of patients served over the years.

Another significant accomplishment is FOYA’s ability to recognize innovation across the pharmaceutical engineering field. This includes academic institutions, government facilities, start-ups, emerging growth companies, and large multi-national corporations. These projects have ranged from modest-size projects of labs under 2,000 square feet with budgets less than USD$5 million to massive multibillion-dollar projects spanning 1 million square feet. Some are completed under a year, while others take a decade. The only trend favoring large corporations is their likelihood of winning multiple times due to having more facilities to submit for consideration. This diversity in recognition shows that projects of any size and companies of any size have the opportunity to win. The criteria for receiving FOYA recognition have evolved over time, as evidenced by the trends and examples set by past winners. To better understand this evolution, we present a few stories of facility projects, people, and the program involved in FOYA.

Setting New Standards

In 2005, the Overall Winner for FOYA was Novo Nordisk’s “NovoSeven Facility” in Hillerød, Denmark. The facility employed a modular design and construction, incorporating glass walls for visibility and aesthetics. It also integrated standardized automation and control elements, allowing the project to be completed within 18 months at a cost of approximately USD$143 million. The project met the need to balance novel technology with speed and budget to serve patients quickly and efficiently. At the time, the facility focused on pre-filled device solutions for insulin and clotting factors. This project set a precedent for the future adoption of modular design, construction, and automation in best-in-class facility projects over the next 20 years.

While the Novo Nordisk facility has remained within the original owner, as have several other winners, some facilities have changed hands over the years. For example:

• Catalent, Inc., acquired Cook Pharmica, a two-time winner for its facilities in Bloomington, Indiana, US, and Carolina, Puerto Rico.
• Janssen Pharmaceuticals acquired Centocor winners in Cork, Ireland, and Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
• AstraZeneca acquired two winning facilities in Frederick, Maryland, US, and Liverpool, England, through the MedImmune acquisition.
• Roche acquired Genentech’s winning facilities in Oceanside, California, US, and Tuas, Singapore, and was the parent company at the time of the Genentech wins in Vacaville, California, US, and San Francisco, California, US. The Tuas facility was originally acquired from Lonza, and years later the Vacaville site was acquired by Lonza.
• Shire PLC (now part of Takeda) won for its own facility in Lexington, Massachusetts, US, and then acquired Baxter International which included previous wins in Bloomington, Indiana, US, and Halle, Westfalen, Germany. Shire projects at the previous Baxter sites in Los Angeles, California, US, also won category awards. The Covington, Georgia, US, Baxter site was acquired by Shire, and was soon acquired by Takeda, and so transitioned through both acquisitions during its project timeline prior to its FOYA win.

Other facility winners have also seen acquisitions. Unfortunately, some winners have been impacted by site closure, but there is sometimes endurance left in the facilities. Biolex Therapeutics received special merit recognition for its Pittsboro, North Carolina, US, expansion in 2006, but later closed its doors. The location is now occupied by a medical device design company. These examples reflect natural industry transitions and the enduring value these facilities demonstrate in their respective communities.

FOYA projects continue to build on the original value they bring to the industry. For example, the Wyeth Pharmaceuticals BioPharma Campus in Grange Castle, Grange West, County Kildare, Ireland, which won in 2006, was later acquired by Pfizer. The campus subsequently hosted Pfizer winners for Aseptic Expansion in 2010 and Network Strategy Implementation (NSI) Capacity Expansion in 2014, with the latter being the FOYA Overall Winner. The NSI Capacity Expansion project successfully integrated complex facilities with minimal disruption while adopting flexible, portable equipment capability. This success was achieved through operational excellence, and project management methodologies, and the collaboration, expertise, and accountability of team members.

FOYA winners lead the industry by demonstrating best practices specific to the pharmaceutical field, such as project execution and facility integration, as well as cross-industry trends like social impact and sustainability. These projects recognize efforts to address unmet needs, unique collaborations, and environmental innovation. One notable example is the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), a two-time winner in Saraburi Province, Thailand, which represents a government-sponsored project to serve regional patients while pursuing energy-efficient and zero-waste operations. Chugai’s most recent win in 2024 for the FJ2 Project in Shizuola Prefecture, Japan, further expanded on zero-waste initiatives in multiple areas.

The past four years provided unique opportunities to recognize projects that made significant contributions to COVID-19 treatments. These projects include awards to Gilead Sciences’ Center for Innovative Drug Research (CIDR) in Foster City, California, US, in 2021; Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM) Large-Scale Fill-Finish Facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, in 2021; Janssen Biologics B.V., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, in preparation for a new building on the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP) in Leiden, Netherlands, in 2022; Catalent for Project Mercury in Bloomington, Indiana, US, in 2022; and, the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., Maharashtra, India, for the NISHWAS project recognized in the Supply Chain category in 2023.

Later winners mirrored the evolution of innovation and technology driven by Industry 4.0. These winners included those incorporating continuous manufacturing, such as awards to Pfizer for Portable, Continuous, Modular, and Miniature (PCMM) in Groton, Connecticut, US, in 2016; Lilly’s Continuous Direct Compression Manufacturing Kits 2 and 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana, US, and Carolina, Puerto Rico, in 2017; the IE2 Small Volume Continuous Facility in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, in 2019; and, Janssen’s Mirror-1: The Continuous Manufacturing Platform for developing their new Oral Solid Dosage portfolio in Beerse, Belgium, in 2020.

Digital enablement was recognized in awards for Optimizing Pharmaceutical Processes. Winners included Vetter’s Center for Visual Inspection and Logistics in Ravensburg, Germany, in 2018; Moderna for New cGMP Clinical Manufacturing Facility in Norwood, Massachusetts, US, in 2019; and to the CRISPR Therapeutics facility in Framingham, Massachusetts, US, in 2022.

Innovation and advancements in Pharma 4.0™ were ultimately recognized by Overall Facility wins for the Sanofi Digitally Enabled, Integrated Continuous Biomanufacturing Facility in Framingham, Massachusetts, US, in 2020; Takeda’s Project TaSiVa in Singen, Germany, in 2022; the Genentech South San Francisco Clinical Supply Center in California, US, in 2023; and, the Lilly IE2b project in Kinsale, Ireland, in 2024.

FOYA winners continue to set the standard for pharmaceutical engineering excellence, not only incorporating execution best practices through project management and operational excellence, but also innovation in design, facility integration, construction, equipment, automation, and digital tools. They also must demonstrate best-in-class collaboration and teamwork, including safe working conditions and dedication to quality.

FOYA in the Next 20 Years

As ISPE celebrates FOYA’s 20th anniversary, it’s thrilling to imagine what the next 20 years will bring to the pharmaceutical engineering field. One certainty is that FOYA will remain a presence at the forefront of new technology and innovation. FOYA will continue to evolve to meet the needs of the ISPE community by showcasing industry excellence.