The United Therapeutics DDOMAL project team has now not only won an ISPE FOYA, but the 2020 ENR MidAtlantic Regional Best Projects Award in Manufacturing. Engineering News Record (ENR) awards companies annually with its ENR Regional Best Projects Award for outstanding projects in the United States and Puerto Rico in 20 specialized categories. Each of the 10 ENR regions holds its own Regional Best Projects Award program, and the contest is judged by a group of industry leaders in design and construction from each region. The submitted projects are evaluated on the ability to overcome challenges, safety, and construction and design quality, among others.
This project won the award for the work done to create United Therapeutics’ new oncology research and development lab, DDOMAL. The criticality of the project for patients and the limited time frame allowed designers to flex their creative muscles and be truly innovative in the project execution. The project was a critical success and allows United Therapeutics to increase its capacity to produce Unituxin® (dinutuximab), an FDA-approved monoclonal antibody treatment for high-risk pediatric neuroblastoma patients.
The facility took a partnered design/build approach with industry leaders providing expertise to this project. Nothing short of a Herculean effort, this project was completed using out of the box thinking in a tight metropolitan area. This multi-floor, cylindrical building’s small footprint created numerous challenges for manufacturing including: optimizing floor space without interruption of columns, incorporating vertical transportation into personnel and process flows, laying out critical utilities and process equipment, and producing media and buffer to support the process vertically and ergonomically.
United Therapeutics Corporation’s mission is to provide the best medicines to patients possible and work to communicate and make physicians aware of their product’s capabilities. IPS is incredibly proud to have been an integral part of United Therapeutics’ important project by providing Inceptioneering™, design, and engineering services. With our efforts, we are helping provide relief for children with neuroblastoma and get them back to what they do best – being a kid.
Learn more about this award and see the other winners here: https://www.enr.com/blogs/11-mid-atlantic-monitor/post/49775-enr-midatlantic-names-2020-best-projects
