€20 million already invested and new investments on the cards amounting to €25 million Geel, June 20, 2005 – In the presence of Marc Verwilghen, Economics, Energy, Trade, and Science Policy minister, a completely isolated High Containment Production Chain comes on line today at the Geel site of Janssen Pharmaceutica. The opening ceremony is part of the festivities marking the 30th birthday of this site.

In addition, Janssen Pharmaceutica has chosen this occasion to announce new investments amounting to €25 million.

1975-2005: 30 Years of Steady Growth
For 30 years now, the Janssen Pharmaceutica site in Geel has played a crucial role within Johnson & Johnson in producing pharmaceutically active ingredients for medicines. About two-thirds of the worldwide chemical production in the pharmaceutical sector of Johnson & Johnson is supplied by the Chemical Production plant in Geel.

Chemical Production in Geel has grown non-stop since its inception in 1975. The workforce increased from 37 staff members in 1975 to 740 in January 2005. And the Geel site has not only grown in terms of its workforce; in recent years there has been enormous investment in new technologies. Consequently, today this site can boast of several unique production installations.

With the inauguration of the High Containment Production Chain on June 20, Janssen Pharmaceutica in Geel confirms its status as a leader in the application of new technologies.

High Containment Production Chain
The High Containment Production Chain consists of four separate state-of-the-art production installations, which, together, account for an investment of more than €20 million. Consistent with the so-called containment technology, these installations are fully enclosed, which substantially enhances quality and safety.

Safety
The construction of the chain is such that workers are not exposed to active ingredients. Even manual handling is carried out by means of built-in gloves, and this is done under the most stringent safety conditions; hence the term glove boxes. It follows that the installations in the chain are ideally suited to the processing of highly medically active ingredients, like cancer-treatment products, narcotics for anesthesia, analgesics and many others.

Quality
The isolated area ensures a clean production environment containing at most 10 000 particles per cubic foot. To put such a concentration in perspective, in a regular environment the count is several million particles per cubic foot. The installations meet the highest quality standards, which is necessary, for example, for the production of injectable products.
Together, these installations constitute an isolated processing chain. Transport between the various installations is carried out by means of special sealed drums, which can be opened only after they are coupled to an isolator.

1. Weighing Cells
These cells are constructed in such a way that employees can perform their tasks safely in the necessary protective suit. They are separated from the outside by two locks, which creates a clean environment.
In these locks all the air is replaced and filtered about 30 times per hour, which translates into a displacement of 10 000 m³ air per hour.

2. Final Crystallization Area
Through the use of isolator technology, complete separation from the outside is assured, and active ingredients can be produced in accordance with the highest quality and safety standards.
These glove boxes are subjected to an underpressure of -100 pa.

3. Small Volume Area
In this installation the highly active powders are ground and sieved to the required granule size (as small as 0.0002 mm). The combination of the state-of-the-art milling installation and high-technology separation with the aid of glove boxes (or isolators) puts this installation in a class all by itself.
The grinding mill reaches a rotation speed of 496 km/h.

4. Cleaning Isolator
The circle closes with an isolated glove box for cleaning all the materials that are used to process highly active ingredients.

Future Investments in Containment Technology

Weighing Isolator (end 2005)
In the fall of 2005 a weighing isolator will come on line. As a result, the dispensing of base materials, which is now done in weighing cells CP2, will also be completely isolated. At that point, the personal protective equipment that is now used will become obsolete.