Created in 1994, LFB develops, produces and markets blood plasma-derived medicinal products for the treatment of serious pathologies and rare diseases. Its clientele is mainly made up of health institutions. In order to reinforce France's industrial and health sovereignty in this field, LFB has decided to significantly increase its production capacity by launching the construction of a new production plant in Arras, in the North of France.
The PIERRE GUERIN teams (EQUANS group) have designed a tailor-made solution to meet this unprecedented challenge.
Key figures
Key figures
The pharmaceutical industry's biggest project in France
The Arras site is undoubtedly exceptional in its size, as far as the production of medicines in France is concerned: the future site will occupy no less than 6 hectares in the Actiparc business park, and its structure required the installation of 500 piles. The challenge also lies in the strict pharmaceutical standards governing the production of medicines, which require very high-tech equipment
PIERRE GUERIN (EQUANS group) has won the contract to design and supply 3 workshops dedicated to plasma thawing, albumin purification and immunoglobulin purification.
This future-oriented contract represents a real economic challenge as it will enable LFB to triple its drug production capacity to meet patients' needs and support the Group's international growth.
A tailor-made solution
To complete this large-scale project, EQUANS' teams began work in January 2021. They designed equipment specific to the nature of the project.
- 60 process tanks (volume from 100 litres to 27,000 litres) and their associated skids
- 12 cleaning stations and their associated skids.
- The supply and integration of a set of process equipment: chromatography columns, filter presses, utrafiltration systems, freezers, accessory washing machine.
Expertise
PIERRE GUERIN is a reference supplier of stainless steel tanks and automated process lines for the food, cosmetics and biopharmaceutical industries. Specialising in sterile and biological forms in a GMP environment, in particular, the company offers unique know-how on a wide range of applications, in particular for the production of blood derivatives and biological equivalents, hormones, anti-cancer agents, microbial and viral vaccines, etc.
Results
Today, the infrastructures of the Arras plant are completed and we have gone from a construction site to a real production site. In 2022, the qualification of the equipment will begin.
The three plasma-derived medicinal product production workshops will be real levers of performance and regional attractiveness, and will help to position the site at the cutting edge of the industrial and pharmaceutical sector.
The Arras plant will enable us to triple our overall production capacity for plasma-derived medicinal products, for which there is a growing demand in France and worldwide.
Denis Delval, LFB's CEO