Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced that a groundbreaking event was held today for Bayer AG’s (Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayer.com) first-of-a-kind cell culture technology center in Berkeley, California. Fluor is providing a single point of responsibility for engineering, procurement, construction management and commissioning, qualification and validation of the facility that will produce oncology and other therapeutics.
“We look forward to working with Fluor on this exciting project, and benefiting from the company’s expertise in engineering, procurement, construction management and validation — all of which will allow us to have flexible and scalable facilities for the future and enable us to bring new medicines to patients faster,” says Judy Chou, senior vice president and global head of Bayer Biotech.
“We are delighted that Fluor’s innovative plant layout and modularized construction solution will allow Bayer’s strategically important manufacturing facility to be designed and built with capital efficiency and a focus on optimizing the project’s schedule,” says Juan G. Hernandez, president of Fluor’s Life Sciences and Advanced Manufacturing business line. “The facility’s user-friendly, reconfigurable design will facilitate increased speed to market for new life-saving treatments.”
The state-of-the-art, single-use technology (SUT) biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility will be constructed at Bayer’s Berkeley site using land from a demolished office building. In 2018, Fluor engaged in the conceptual study and front-end engineering design for the project which is due for completion in early 2021.
Bayer selected GE Healthcare to provide its FlexFactory SUT platform which will be incorporated into the project through a collaborative subcontract to Fluor. GE Healthcare is supplying all major unit operations, systems and ancillary equipment and components.
Fluor’s scope also includes process integration for the entire facility and all associated utilities. Fluor’s San Francisco office will lead the project with support from the company’s offices in Greenville, South Carolina and Gliwice, Poland.