A trusted partner for pharmaceuticals and life sciences
Whether streamlining automation processes for pandemic preparedness, developing a concept study and capital investment plan for a complex multiproduct plant, or refurbishing existing facilities without disrupting ongoing operations, our clients know they can rely on us.
Our extensive portfolio of projects has encompassed design, engineering, project management, construction, and consultancy of:
- Primary and secondary manufacturing facilities
- Sterile biologics manufacturing including vaccine production
- High containment laboratories
- Warehousing and logistics buildings
- Infrastructure and support facilities, such as energy centres
- Medical device production
Expanding and automating vaccine production
When increased demand prompted AstraZeneca to look at expanding its MedImmune site, we identified expansion space that could be refurbished during seasonal downtime. Our masterplan developed proposals to de-bottleneck and expand the facility as well as to resolve gaps in site infrastructure. We then redesigned each discrete processing step into a fully integrated and automated production train.
The project won the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers’ (ISPE) Facility of the Year 2013 Award, and AstraZeneca adopted our masterplan approach for other sites across Europe and the US.
Fast-tracking a sustainable pharmaceutical warehouse
Named as the European Construction Institute’s Case Study Project of the Year 2012, Pfizer’s warehouse in Havant, UK, is part of the firm’s critical cold chain. Using the European Construction Institute’s ACTIVE project management principles, we achieved a sustainable design, with a refrigeration plant - which optimises energy efficiency while maintaining safe redundancy levels and excellent air tightness.
All this was achieved on an operational site with a fast-track delivery programme of just 14 months.
Flexible, adaptable, sustainable research and testing laboratories
In science and technology, facilities such as research and testing laboratories must be increasingly flexible, adaptable and sustainable to meet new functions and requirements.
The retrofit of facilities poses multiple challenges. As well as meeting requirements for containment and equipment, the buildings need to incorporate complex services. There are multiple stakeholders to consult and, frequently, tight shutdown windows in which to complete the work. WSP brings the specialist resources to deliver these technically complex and high-profile projects on time and on budget.
Studying the feasibility of high-containment research facilities
We helped ensure that a new high-containment facility for the UK’s Pirbright Institute was technically feasible and affordable. The facility is part of an investment that will provide a national capability for carrying out fundamental and applied research into viral animal disease.
Working closely with the institute’s scientists, facilities maintenance, engineering and project management teams, we produced facility layouts and designs, a scope of work for upgrading infrastructure and utilities, and a site layout. Our full lifecycle cost estimates provided reassurance about the project’s long-term sustainability and funding requirements.
Fast-track, flexible space for the National Physical Laboratory
The NPL is the UK's National Measurement Institute and a world-leading centre of excellence. In just 12 weeks, we repurposed lab space within the facility for use by Cancer Research UK as it seeks to fully understand the genetic structure of cancer cells. Because the lab will handle human tissue samples, we had to take a specialist approach to meet Containment Level 2 while ensuring the space retained the flexibility to move equipment around and even split the lab up into smaller sections in the future.
