G-CON Manufacturing, the leader in prefabricated, flexible cleanroom solutions, announced today that it has delivered to Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) a new Portable, Continuous, Miniature, and Modular (PCMM) POD with tablet coating capability to Pfizer’s POD-based Oral Solid Dosage facility in Groton, Connecticut. The new POD integrates GEA’s leading-edge ConsiGma™ Continuous Tablet Coater equipment.

The new POD is approximately 700 square feet and was built in two subPOD units. It was installed and connected to the existing PCMM PODs within a week by the G-CON team. Prior to delivery and installation, the GEA process equipment was installed and tested in the POD at G-CON’s manufacturing facility in College Station, Texas, further reducing the time and complexity of installation at the Pfizer site and minimizing operational downtime. The POD includes a film coating process area, integrated technical space for the G-CON and GEA mechanical systems, and dedicated airlocks for personnel and material. It has the capability for continuous integrated operation with the current OSD line or independent and segregated film coating operations.

“The latest POD installation at Pfizer continues to demonstrate the value and benefits that a prefabricated modular approach can provide with regard to speed and flexibility,” said Dennis Powers, Vice President of Business Development & Sales Engineering at G-CON Manufacturing. “The G-CON team is extremely proud of this PCMM milestone achievement.”

“Expanding our PCMM facility with this new POD from G-CON is a testament to our commitment to establishing innovative, industry-leading manufacturing capabilities, which could have a powerful impact on our ability to more quickly and easily produce medicines for patients in need,” said John Burkhardt, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Drug Safety Research and Development, and Groton Site Head, Pfizer.

About G-CON Manufacturing

G-CON Manufacturing designs, builds and installs prefabricated G-CON POD® cleanrooms. GCON’s POD portfolio provides cleanrooms in a number of dimensions for a variety of uses, from laboratory environments to personalized medicine and production process platforms. G-CON POD® cleanroom units surpass traditional cleanroom structures in scalability, mobility and the possibility of repurposing the PODs once the production process reaches its lifecycle end. For more information, please visit G-CON’s website at http://www.gconbio.com

About PCMM Technology

PCMM technology is a unique, continuous manufacturing system that accelerates tablet production. The pharmaceutical industry has been trending toward lower-volume products, driven by an increased focus on precision medicine approaches to develop and commercialize new therapies. This creates a need for smaller, more flexible continuous processing technologies.
 

By miniaturizing the equipment, the continuous process can be enclosed in a portable, autonomous space called a POD, which can be transported to any location in the world and quickly assembled.

The PCMM technology has the potential to transform the current biopharmaceutical industry standard of using batch processing to manufacture tablets and capsules from powders—an oftentimes complex process that requires large, dedicated manufacturing facilities. The PCMM continuous process takes only minutes from the addition of raw materials to the completion of finished tablets.

Highlights of PCMM’s potential for smaller, more flexible, continuous processing technologies include:

A PCMM facility has a 60 to 70% smaller footprint than a conventional production facility.

PCMM enables use of the same equipment for development, clinical trials and commercial manufacturing.