The pharmaceutical company Cristalia, founded in 1972 and based in the city of São Paulo, has invested in one of the most modern and innovative drug production plants in Brazil. The facility, which was officially inaugurated last March, has increased the production capacity of the company and readied it for further challenges.

Cristalia continuously invests in offering innovative products for the Brazilian market. It has registered 117 patent applications and has patents for 21 technologies and 15 drugs, making it the national drug company with the largest number of patents.

The management made the decision to expand production capacity five years ago, through the construction of a new unit in Itapira, São Paulo.  It will be the second drug production plant on this site, where operation is already underway in the areas of R&D and innovation, biotechnology and pharmaceutics. This is in addition to the current drug plant, which has over 53,000 square meters of constructed surface.

In order to acquire the latest technologies for the new factory, company management participated in various international fairs and technical visits in 2003 and 2004. Through these actions, the company established the highest standards of architectural, material and equipment solutions. Conceptually, the aim was to construct a compact unit, with the maximum level of process optimization and functionality in space. This was achieved by incorporating the most modern concepts and equipment.

In the outcome, Tpro was designated by Cristalia as the specialised company for this development. The pharmaceutical plant covers close to 11,800 square meters of constructed production surface, from which 3,100 square meters correspond to classified areas, and the rest to technical surfaces and controlled areas. The new facility will allow Cristalia to double its current production capacity.

In general terms, there are four specific areas: sterile freeze-dried products, sterile liquids (eyedrops), oral solids and semi-solids (ointments). On the first floor, most of the space is used for the production of freeze-dried (lyophilized) products. This comprises close to 1,470 square meters, 540 of which correspond to classified areas and 930 to non-classified areas. The solids production unit is the largest of all; the production line occupies 2,600 square meters, of which 1,500 correspond to Grade D and the rest to non-classified areas.

The new facility of Cristália is among the most modern and efficient in the world and the final result is a world class production plant.