BOSTON–Moderna’s cGMP clinical development manufacturing facility in Norwood, MA took the category win in the 2019 International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) Facility of the Year Award Program. The facility was designed by DPS Group and TRIA.
ISPE’s Facility of the Year Awards is the premier global awards program recognizing innovation and creativity in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing industries. Announced at the 2019 ISPE Europe Annual Conference in Dublin, Ireland on April 2nd, the award-winning projects set the standard for pharmaceutical facilities of the future by demonstrating excellence in facility design, construction, and operations.
DPS and TRIA provided full architectural, engineering design, and project management services for Moderna’s new 200,000 SF Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) mRNA clinical manufacturing facility in Norwood, Mass.
Moderna is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines to create a new generation of transformative medicines for patients. The company’s Norwood facility provides the capacity to develop materials for pre-clinical studies, as well as Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical development programs. ISPE selected Moderna as the 2019 Facility of the Future Category Award winner for the potential impact on patients through accelerated delivery of a new category of medicines.
“We are delighted to have worked with Moderna to bring this new state-of-the-art facility to successful completion,” said Frank Keogh, chief executive officer, DPS Group. “It is extremely gratifying to deliver on Moderna’s vision for a digitally-enabled, flexible and scalable facility to develop innovative medicines for patients. DPS and TRIA warmly congratulate Moderna on winning this prestigious ISPE Facility of the Future Category Award.”
DPS provided full engineering design and architecture services for all areas of the two-story facility, including cGMP clinical manufacturing, drug substance suites, formulation, aseptic filling, plasmid production, quality control laboratories, pre-clinical laboratories, toxicology laboratories, and clinical and pre-clinical warehouses. TRIA designed the office and lab areas, including three clinical labs, a glass-walled tour experience showcasing Moderna’s discovery and manufacturing process, and an open office environment with flexible seating, collaboration areas and transparency to create visual connections between the office and lab/manufacturing spaces. DPS and TRIA collaborated closely to ensure that all clinical and non-clinical program elements were designed in harmony with one another.
Designed and built on a two-year, fast-tracked schedule, Moderna’s technically complex facility was also designed to achieve LEED certification. The project team included:
- Project Architect and Engineer of Record: DPS Group
- Lab Architect and Interior Designer: TRIA
- Construction Manager: Wise Construction
- Owner’s Rep: Hereva Consultants
- Validation: ValSource
- Structural Engineer: Pare Corporation
- Civil Engineer: Kelly Engineering
- MEP Startup Coordination and Operations: 42 North Solutions
- Code Compliance Consultant: Jenson Hughes
- Landlord: Alexandria Real Estate
Established in 2004, The Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) recognize state-of-the-art projects utilizing new, innovative technologies to improve the quality of products, reduce the cost of producing high-quality medicines, and demonstrate advances in project delivery. The FOYA program provides a platform for the pharmaceutical science and manufacturing industry to showcase its accomplishments in facility design, construction, and operation, while sharing the development of new applications of technology and cutting-edge approaches.
The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) is the world’s largest not-for-profit association serving its members through leading scientific, technical, and regulatory advancement across the entire pharmaceutical lifecycle. The 18,500 members of ISPE are building solutions in the development and manufacture of safe, effective pharmaceutical and biologic medicines, and medical delivery devices in more than 90 countries around the world. Founded in 1980, ISPE has its worldwide headquarters and training center in North Bethesda, Maryland USA, and its operations center in Tampa, Florida USA. Visit www.ISPE.org for more information.
