Pharmaceutical manufacturer Penn Pharma, a PCI company, has reached another significant safety milestone this month having operated for four years without a single accident at its facility in Tredegar, South Wales.
This incredible landmark equates to 2.4 million working hours worked by c.300 staff and is a record that Penn, now a PCI company, is extremely proud of. Backed by a recent ISO14001 re-certification, the company places equal emphasis on its environmental management system and compliance.
To achieve this record in a standard day-to-day operational environment would be remarkable; however it is even more significant given the substantial expansion programmes undertaken at the site in the last four years. Firstly there was the design and build of the new contained manufacturing facility for the development and manufacturing of highly potent compounds which completed in September 2013, followed by a further capacity expansion resulting in a new large-scale commercial manufacturing suite which became operational in June 2014. Both expansion programmes were completed in less than 12 months but not at the expense of safety.
To undertake such significant construction programmes while maintaining operational functionality elsewhere in the site and still remain accident free is a truly remarkable achievement and one of which the company and its employees are extremely proud.
Commenting on this latest milestone, Mark Dean-Netscher Vice President, International Operations said: “This type of achievement in safety does not just happen; we have created a safety focused culture by developing robust processes including a very effective ’near miss’ system. When we talk about safety within the business, there is a real sense of pride evident and it is the commitment of our staff which has led to this incredible achievement.”
Mark continued, “Customers can be confident that with this industry benchmark, Penn is uniquely placed as an outsourcing partner. We offer a guaranteed ‘safe pair of hands’ in the extended supply chain.”
This latest announcement is just one of a long list of achievements enjoyed by Penn in recent months; in 2014 Penn won the Facility Integration category at the ISPE Facility of the Year for its new contained manufacturing facility, as well as being awarded three CMO Leadership Awards.