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Recognizing that their existing egg-based bulk vaccine manufacturing process would not support a rapid increase in production of its Influenza vaccine Intranasal, MedImmune implemented the UK Automation Upgrade Project, a series of innovations to their existing equipment line in Speke,Liverpool, UK.

Faced with the lack of commercially available equipment and the tight timelines for seasonal Influenza vaccine manufacturing, the MedImmune team utilized a system engineering methodology to redesign each discrete processing step into a fully integrated and automated production train. The team made significant innovations to equipment for automated candling, harvesting, isopropyl alcohol (IPA) spray, decap inspection, and isolation. The result was a 15% increase in yield, a 25% reduction in seasonal labor, an 8% reduction in rejects, and a decrease in waste at every stage of the process.

Because of its work to drive a paradigm shift in egg-based vaccine manufacturing, the Facility of the Year Award Judging Panel recognizes the UK Automation Upgrade Project for Equipment Innovation.

Althought RAME-HART is not mentioned in this article, which is a mistake, they will be mentioned in a future article as Designer and Builder of the Project.

Read more here.