Morphotek Inc. Pilot Plant Receives 2013 Facility of the Year Award

EXTON, Pa., Feb. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Morphotek^® Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., announced today that its recently opened 60,000-square-foot pilot plant for the production of biological-based therapeutics to support early-stage clinical trials has been designated the 2013 Facility of the Year in the Sustainability category in a competition sponsored by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), INTERPHEX, and Pharmaceutical Processing magazine. The award was bestowed by a panel of experts, consisting of senior-level executives from multiple global pharmaceutical companies, who judged 27 projects from various countries.

The Morphotek pilot plant project was initiated in 2008, with groundbreaking occurring in 2010 and construction being completed in late 2011.  The company invested $80 million in the facility, which encompasses a current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) grade pilot plant and office space for support functions, enabling Morphotek to maximize the efficiencies of its product development process and move closer to its goal of becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company.

"Eisai and Morphotek are committed to developing drugs in a cost-effective manner for our patients, and that is reflected in the design and operation of our energy efficient, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility," said Dr. Philip Sass, Morphotek's Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. "We are honored to receive this prestigious award."

The judges said the Morphotek pilot plant utilized a variety of design and construction features that made it stand out from other entries in the Sustainability category, including the following:

• It was built on a Brownfield site, giving new life to a previously abandoned and contaminated site through soil remediation and  the demolition of antiquated buildings.
• Building materials used for the plant were all purchased within 500 miles of the plant to decrease the amount of energy used for shipping.
• The project team used Building Information Modeling (BIM) software to integrate the best sustainable decisions into the design process.

In addition, Morphotek incorporated a number of "green initiatives" into the design of the facility. These include the use of recycled materials (such as cinder blocks and structured metal) from the building that used to be on the site; solar panels; timers and motion sensors for lights and heating/cooling; parking for low-emission vehicles; the use of low chemical-emitting paints and plastics; and a comprehensive water and energy plan.   

The award will be officially presented to Morphotek representatives in April at the annual Leadership Dinner at INTERPHEX 2013 in New York City. The company will also be recognized at the ISPE Annual Meeting in November, in addition to being featured in upcoming issues of two magazines, Pharmaceutical Processing and Pharmaceutical Engineering. 

About Morphotek
Morphotek^® Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of protein and antibody products through the use of a novel and proprietary gene evolution technology.  The technology has been successfully applied to a broad variety of cell lines and organisms to yield genetically diverse offspring that are suitable for pharmaceutical product development in the areas of antibody therapeutics, protein therapeutics, product manufacturing, drug target discovery, and improved output traits for commercial applications.  The company is currently focusing its platform on the development and manufacturing of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and infectious disease.  For more information, please visit www.morphotek.com.  

About Eisai Inc.
Eisai Inc. was established in 1995 and began marketing its first product in the United States in 1997. Since that time, Eisai Inc. has rapidly grown to become a fully integrated pharmaceutical business. Eisai's key areas of commercial focus are neurology and oncology. The company serves as the U.S. pharmaceutical operation of Eisai Co., Ltd., a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products throughout the world. 

Eisai has a global product creation organization that includes U.S.-based R&D facilities in Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania as well as manufacturing facilities in Maryland and North Carolina. The company's areas of R&D focus include neuroscience; oncology; vascular, inflammatory and immunological reaction; and antibody-based programs.  For more information about Eisai, please visit www.eisai.com/us.

SOURCE Morphotek Inc.