Sascha Pfeiffer reaches first milestone

Two Pharmbiocon employees prepare an antibiotic for testing in the Class C cleanroom. (Source: Photo: Gianfranco Fain)

Once the structural prerequisites for producing pharmaceutical products by Pharmbiocon in Bad Endbach are in place, the purchase of equipment and approval by the authorities follow.

It's quite special when planning services are exceptionally provided for one's own project, as Sascha Pfeiffer remarks with a smile. Planning, quality assurance, and approval of pharmaceutical facilities are usually part of the business areas of the Pfeiffer companies, but since early October, the focus in Bad Endbach has been on Pharmbiocon, on approximately 300 square meters where a qualified production site for pharmaceutical products, including storage and laboratory, is being established.

What makes the 41-year-old company owner "very, very satisfied" is the fact that, despite restrictions due to the Corona pandemic, everything went according to plan. The floor above the VR Bank branch in the center of Bad Endbach has been completely renovated, and the rooms for working with pharmaceutical technology, including a Class C cleanroom, are completed. Since all this was done at exactly the budgeted cost of around one million euros, it pleases the company boss all the more.

Next step: purchase of equipment

Another approximately 1.5 million euros will be added before production can start. The next step is the purchase of equipment, for which the tendering process has already been completed. Once the rooms and devices are approved and authorized by the authorities, production of own products will begin, for example for pain therapy or to perform quality testing as contract work.

So far, Lyo Engineering has been the backbone of his company, but in about a year, Sascha Pfeiffer aims to achieve his goal of becoming a pharmaceutical manufacturer, from development to production. The company founder took the leap into independence only in 2013 when he founded Lyo Engineering. This division acts as a partner to the pharmaceutical industry and medical technology, developing and planning pharmaceutical facilities or freeze-drying projects for clients, from construction to approval readiness worldwide.

Clients are international companies

The new business division is involved with a laboratory for process and procedure technology with freeze-drying, as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications. Clients include international pharmaceutical companies, currently also a COVID vaccine manufacturer, for which a plant is being built in Leverkusen.

The split of the company into Lyo Engineering and Pharmbiocon in 2018 led, among other things, to the expansion and reorganization of the facilities, allowing up to 40 jobs in the final stage instead of the initially planned 30.

Joy over 'regional' employees

Since October, Pfeiffer has hired four new employees in various professions. Currently, pharmacists, biopharmaceutical specialists, biotechnologists, engineers, logisticians, and office staff make up the team. About half a year from now, further hires are planned. Pfeiffer describes the applicant flow as "quite good." So far, the approximately 20 employees from both divisions come from within a 50-kilometer radius of Bad Endbach.

Company boss Pfeiffer is pleased that, like him, the employees are "very regionally recruited," preferring to stay in the hinterland rather than move to Frankfurt or southern Germany. The high value he places on regionality is also demonstrated by the awarding of trades. Except for a specialist supplier for the required cleanroom sluice, which has been operational for two weeks, only local craftsmen were involved in the construction. This also contributes to his feeling of being "very, very satisfied."

Source: Oberhessische Presse, 03.05.2021.