EXCLUSIVE: Mona Åkerholm from Elomatic gives update on Biovian facility build

By Lina Kurdi | Published: 13-Nov-2024

Mona Åkerholm, Senior VP of Pharma Services at Elomatic, in conversation with the Editor of Cleanroom Technology, Sophie Bullimore, shared an exclusive update on the build of Biovian's new biopharmaceutical facility

Biovian, a Finland-based pharmaceutical company, chose Elomatic, a Finland-based international engineering and consulting company, to execute the basic process design of its new biopharmaceutical factory in Turku, Finland.  

The contract was announced last year and also included the concept design for the process as well as the factory’s cleanroom delivery. 

Specifically, Elomatic was responsible for defining the clean utilities and the project management of the basic design. Elomatic's work on this project emphasised safety aspects in terms of both people and the environment, as well as diverse co-operation with the construction company.

The Finland-based engineering and consulting company provided the basic process design for the new plant in Turku, Finland, and was responsible for the factory’s cleanroom delivery

The basic design continued until April 2024, and the facility is scheduled to be completed in the Itäharju district of Turku in 2025.

Mona Åkerholm, Senior VP of Pharma Services at Elomatic, exclusively shared with Cleanroom Technology, the current stage the plant is at.

Åkerholm said: "Right now we are in the intensive building phase, so everything needs to be in place. The plan is to be ready on time and according to expectations. So, we are really running hard to get there."

EXCLUSIVE: Mona Åkerholm from Elomatic gives update on Biovian facility build

The new biopharmaceutical plant

The plant will be a facility for the development of virus innovations in Finland to meet the growing demand for biopharmaceuticals.

The basic design continued until April 2024, and the facility is scheduled to be completed in the Itäharju district of Turku in 2025

Specifically, the new facility will manufacture virus-based pharmaceutical drug candidates for Biovian’s customers and it will offer Biovian’s partners new opportunities to develop their innovations by enabling simultaneous work on multiple projects.

Overcoming challenges in the design of the new biopharmaceutical plant

According to Åkerholm, the main challenge for Elomatic working on this big project was coordinating all the stakeholders involved.  

"We have our customer and then the end user, and both of them have consultants and contractors. So, the main challenge has been to coordinate all these and understand the requirements from all parties and try to make it happen," Åkerholm explained.

"It’s project management, when there are a lot of people [on the project] there is a lot of moving parts," Åkerholm added.

Not only did Elomatic have to juggle different expectations and requirements from stakeholders in the project, Elomatic had to deal with different cultures as the stakeholders came from different countries, creating the new challenge of finding a way to work with people with different working styles and perspectives. 

It’s project management, when there is a lot of people [on the project] there is a lot of moving parts

"[Finnish people are used to a time schedule], we want to plan everything beforehand and we are really strict on [meeting] all the milestones, other cultures work in a different way," Åkerholm said.  

Elomatic overcame these challenges through communicating with all stakeholders and all those involved throughout the project.

"The way we have solved it [is through] meetings and then discussions," Åkerholm said. 

Overall, Elomatic used its expertise in cleanrooms and experience in dealing with customers and stakeholders from all over the world to successfully provide the basic process design for the new plant in Turku, and deliver cleanrooms for the factory. 

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