Construction begins on the first manufacturing block
Ergopharm has begun construction of its first manufacturing block in Tandalja, Vadodara — the step that takes the company from analytical services into making finished medicines under its own quality system.
The block was laid out around material and personnel flow rather than around equipment. Dispensing, granulation, compression and coating each occupy their own room, with airlocks between classified areas and a single unidirectional path from goods-in through to packing. That layout decision, taken before a single machine was ordered, is the reason later expansions could be added without re-plumbing the original flows.
“We drew the flows first and chose the machines second. It has saved us a decade of retrofits.”
Utilities were sized with headroom from the outset: a purified-water loop, HVAC with pressure cascades between rooms, and compressed air treated for use in contact with product. Building spare capacity into utilities is unglamorous and expensive at the time; it is also what allows a site to add a line five years later without rebuilding its services.
Qualification was planned into the construction programme rather than bolted on afterwards, with installation, operational and performance qualification protocols drafted alongside the engineering drawings.
Key facts
- Location
- Tandalja, Vadodara, Gujarat
- Form
- Oral solid dose
- Design principle
- Unidirectional material and personnel flow
- Approach
- Qualification protocols drafted with the engineering