A benchmark for innovation and growth in the pharmaceutical industry.

Introduction

With an investment of 70 million euro over five years, Zambon Group has begun expanding its Health & Quality Factory in Vicenza with new cutting-edge production units that will make it a European centre of excellence for complex pharmaceutical production The Vicenza-based Health & Quality Factory, Zambon Group’s production plant spanning over 67,000 square metres, is a dedicated facility for the production of liquid, solid, and injectable pharmaceutical products.
It is a leading scientific hub that promotes healthcare, science, and innovation, designed to be a centre of excellence and expertise. The Factory regularly opens its doors to the public and the academic world, to encourage exchanges between industry, research, and universities. Andrea Paganelli, Zambon’s Chief Industrial Business Operations Officer, presents the project for the plant’s development with the addition a new, cutting-edge production department.

What were your overall goals when you planned your investment for the new department?

A company like Zambon, with a history of nearly 120 years and in particular, as a healthcare specialist continually challenged by innovation and with a strong industrial heritage, adopts a dynamic view of the future. Innovation and values are the cornerstones that define our long-term vision, while quality, excellence, and a sense of responsibility are the factors that guide our daily work.
For this reason, the most important goal of this development project was to expand Zambon’s pharmaceutical industrial expertise and capabilities – which we also make available to third parties – confirming the role of our Health & Quality Factory as an internationally acknowledged centre of industrial excellence. Thanks to this investment for a total amount of €70 million, Health & Quality Factory continues on its growth trend through technological innovation, enhanced production processes, and strengthened research infrastructure, enabling it to manage unique levels of complexity for a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant that was already an industry benchmark for the production of tablets, capsules, syrups, drops, sprays, vials, and bottles for filling sterile liquid and freeze-dried products.

What are its strengths?

Knowing how to innovate our production processes and expand our industrial and technological expertise are skills that allow us to guarantee the production of quality pharmaceuticals – capable of improving the lives of many patients worldwide.

This is a major investment for the group that will increase the potential of our health & quality factory in Vicenza. Our partnership with IMA Life, therefore, stems from our shared vision based on combining quality and innovation for the industrial production of pharmaceuticals. Thanks to the new department, we will be able to upgrade the plant and strengthen our position of excellence in the pharmaceutical industry, adding to the range of possible products with sterile and freeze-dried liquid bottles for biological products, vaccines and anticancer drugs.

Andrea Paganelli – Chief Industrial Business Operations Officer, Zambon

Thanks to this upgrade, Zambon will be able to produce 16 pharmaceutical forms in its Vicenza-based Health & Quality Factory alone, expanding the range of possible productions for the filling of sterile products in liquid and freeze-dried form for biological products, vaccines and anticancer drugs.
The new department will help us become positioned as a leading pharmaceutical company in Italy and Europe, capable of managing unique levels of complexity, and will enable us to meet the demand for both our traditional and our more innovative products, while also opening up new opportunities for other pharmaceutical companies seeking a reliable industrial partner for their own production.

Which solution did you go for and why did it meet your needs?

Our technological decision was driven by the need to install systems compliant with the best state of the art available for production under aseptic conditions. For this purpose, a vial filling line and two isotechnic freeze-dryers, i.e. working under an isolator and capable of guaranteeing containment of high-potent compounds, were purchased, installed and qualified.
Thanks to these systems we can produce sterile vials, anticancer fluids or vaccines under aseptic conditions.

We are proud to have collaborated with Zambon at every level, providing an advanced solution for filling sterile products in liquid and freeze-dried form. We have implemented innovative technologies that are suitable for handling these products, with an installation that guarantees containment of highly potent apis. Today, our customer has a bottle filling line and two freeze dryers under isolator. We are delighted to be able to combine our industrial experience with our flair for innovation, particularly in this field, to help a major industry player reach its goals in the italian and european markets.

Marcello Ghelfi – Aseptic Processing, Sales Director EMEA at IMA Life

The entire department, including the dispensing and compounding areas, has been designed and built to ensure the containment of highly potent APIs down to an OEL value of 10 μg/m3.
Our partnership with IMA Life, therefore, stems from our shared vision based on combining quality and innovation for the industrial production of pharmaceuticals. The vertical expertise that IMA Life is able to provide for isolator and freeze-drying solutions was critically important for the production processes to be implemented in the new department.

What targets do you plan to achieve with this system?

At this stage we have two main goals: authorisation and training. We are working hard to obtain approval from regulatory authorities so that the new department can be fully operational by early 2026. Once it is, we estimate that the increase in overall productivity in our Vicenza plant will be around 10%.
At the same time, we are carrying out a targeted training program for the highly qualified personnel who will work in the new production area of our Vicenza plant. Training plays a critical role at times of technological and industrial evolution like these, allowing us to ensure effective processing. This investment will guarantee an initial, but significant, upgrading in our training and increase in our employment figures of specialised personnel as early as by the end of 2025.