American Institute Of Chemical Engineers Honors Bristol-Myers Squibb With New Process Operations Award - AIChE Press Release

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American Institute Of Chemical Engineers Honors Bristol-Myers Squibb With New Process Operations Award

November 17, 2010

NEW YORK – In a ceremony last week during its Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) presented its new Process Operations Award to Bristol-Myers Squibb - Process and Development. The award, which recognizes individuals or teams working in plant operations, process control, and/or supply chain management that have significantly improved the safety, reliability or economics of process operation, went to the company team for its efforts in implementing “recipe” control in pharmaceutical process development. 

Robert Davis, chair of the AIChE Awards Committee and a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, presented to award to Jean Tom, director of Process R&D.  In doing so, he explained that recipe control allows process developers to define process operations in terms of the sequence of specific tasks and operations rather than in terms of equipment, increasing flexibility, efficiency, reliability, and product quality, while making it easier for process engineers to communicate with process automation staff. 
 
The Bristol-Myers Squibb team developed its recipe control approach in compliance with FDA regulations, and partnered with two software companies for process automation and data analysis. BMS’s recipe control was a conceptual leap in pharmaceutical process development, Davis commented, and its implementation required a substantial investment in risk analysis, multivariable statistical analyses, Quality-by-Design protocols, systems analysis, and a deep understanding of all steps in a batch recipe, as well as their implementation and translation between software and hardware. 
   
Bristol-Myers Squibb has also disseminated their approach to its competitors, so that other pharmaceutical companies can follow the same inventive approach. 
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About AIChE:

AIChE is a professional society of more than 40,000 chemical engineers in 92 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontier of chemical engineering research in such areas as nanotechnology, sustainability, hydrogen fuels, biological and environmental engineering, and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.