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Lundbeck Magazine 2009
35
Tommy Skovby is a chemical engineer at the Lundbeck
synthesis factory at Lumsås where he chairs a project that is
to prepare the way for an entirely new way of manufacturing
pharmaceuticals.
As the author of a dissertation on aromatics for
use in the food industry, Tommy Skovby’s
education actually prepared him for a different
line of work. But ever since he began working in
the Quality Department at the Lumsås factory
nine years ago, he has focused on production of
pharmaceuticals. Tommy is deeply involved at
present in a project that, in the foreseeable future,
will change pharmaceutical production as we
know it.
The current method of manufacturing drugs is on
the way to being replaced by a new process which
is fundamentally different, and Lundbeck is at the
forefront of developments.
Known as continuous production, the method is
new to the pharmaceutical world, though it has
for many years been used by refineries and
chemical industries. Instead of producing large
amounts of a product in batches and closing
down the production line between each batch,
the new method involves manufacturing only
small amounts on a production line that is in
continuous operation. The process is monitored at
strategic points along the way, enabling errors to
be isolated. An entire production system takes up
only a fraction of the space required for current
systems, and is also cheaper and safer for
employees to operate.
Financial necessity
Small-scale continuous production saves money
in several ways, such as power bills.
“With our current method, we heat up a steel
reactor weighing a couple of tons and then cool it
down again several times during a production
process. In future, we will achieve the same result
with a small steel box at only a fraction of the
cost. The systems are so small that it is possible to
have 10 reactors in a space the size of a family
sitting room. A system of this kind saves money
on both heating and ventilation, and we will be
able to increase production tenfold without
moving a single wall,” Tommy says. Financial
necessity is a significant reason for introducing
continuous production.
“At Lundbeck we annually manufacture between
30 and 40 tons of escitalopram, the active
ingredient in Cipralex®. Production takes place in
reactors large enough to contain between 3000
and 4000 litres, and each batch must be put into
sacks or barrels and moved to a warehouse where
they occupy space. If we switch to continuous
production and manufacture 60 grams per
minute, the process can take place in a space
roughly the size of a matchbox,” Tommy explains.
Globalization has added further pressure to keep
production costs down.
“Ten years ago we manufactured most of the raw
materials ourselves, whereas we now purchase
them in the Far East. We must consider how we
can reduce our costs, and it’s a matter of reducing
them as soon as possible,” Tommy continues.
Extremely interesting
As Senior Project Manager, he heads a project
known as Innovative Future Manufacturing IFM.
“When I began working here, I flirted a bit with
process intensification, in which technologies are
combined to improve processes. It was in reality
the forerunner of continuous production, so, in
that sense, I have led the project from the very
beginning – though not full-time. Our main job at
Lundbeck is to manufacture, so the project has
been put on hold several times along the way. In
2006, we devised a strategy for tackling
globalization, and the continuous production
project is part of that strategy,” explains Tommy,
who has been an ardent supporter of the new
method all along.
“Someone had to champion the cause, and it
happened to be me. Both because it is extremely
interesting for an engineer from a professional
point of view, and because, in the final analysis,
it is a matter of Lundbeck’s production activities
surviving in the long term. That is my driving
force,” Tommy states.
Collaboration with the Technical University
of Denmark
The actual systems for the project are one of the
major challenges. They cannot be bought, but
must be developed from scratch. Lundbeck has
therefore entered into a five-year agreement
with DTU concerning development of
applications for the new production method.
Several students are involved in designing
proposals, and the first results have already been
presented for Lundbeck.
“The aim of collaborating with DTU is to obtain
a number of building blocks to have at our
disposal. Everyone in the pharmaceutical
industry is interested in the possibilities, but not
many dare experiment with it. It is difficult to
break the habit of batch production, because it
has been the basis for manufacturing in the
pharmaceutical industry for so many years,”
Tommy says. “Lundbeck would like to be a
pioneer in the area.”
“But we aren’t in any rush. The project has been
set in motion because Lundbeck can see a
number of advantages in the method. And we
aren’t in a great hurry; we would prefer to reap
the results gradually as we move forward,”
concludes Tommy.
PHOTO: Simon ladefoged