Life Sciences

Bavarian Nordic, Denmark

The facility when complete will be equipped with one filling line and one freeze dryer.

MSD, Haarlem, Netherlands

We celebrated the placing of the first pile for the new cold store building at the MSD site in Haarlem, Netherlands. Following the Dutch tradition of ‘Eerste Paal’ the event marks the beginning of the construction phase of the project.

The project is being delivered by John Sisk & Son providing a full turnkey project delivery from concept to commissioning. Sisk has worked with their design partners, Arup and RKD to deliver the front-end concept and design. Arup provided support to Sisk in design management, multidisciplinary engineering and specialist consultancy, with RKD Architects providing full architectural services.

The project has been developed as an innovative model in “construction led execution” from concept through design, execution, commissioning and turnover with the aim of delivering greater efficiency throughout and maintaining focus on the target value and final project outcome.

This has been enabled by Sisk leading the turnkey approach and with the proactive collaboration of the design team and Sisk’s early engagement with its key construction partners, Akor and Jones Engineering along with several other Dutch partners. Key to this has been the virtual build in advance that we have done through digital design and other techniques we have used to drive Lean delivery.

MSD is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world renowned for their discoveries and advances in vaccines. MSD established their presence in the Netherlands in 1950's. The site at Haarlem has global significance as the distribution hub for 2,500 SKUs to more than 140 countries.

Depuy Synthesis

Depuy Synthesis included the separation of a production facility from an existing pharmaceutical site and the subsequent provision of new utilities to serve this facility. It also included the internal demolition and strip out and subsequent fit out of this existing production building (in phases). This is for a change of manufacturing use from drug product tableting to medical device manufacturing. Sisk carried out the role of construction management contractor and PSCS, responsible for all site personnel and logistics.

Pfizer, Grange Castle, Dublin

The purpose of this project was to provide Pfizer, Grange Castle with an upgraded facility suitable for multi-product capability. All the equipment and automation systems installed were set up to facilitate multi-product operation. The facility meets all current regulatory requirements for this type of product for the EU, US and ROW markets.

Sisk were contracted as CM on the Multiple Project Capability (MPC) for Pfizer. We were also contracted under a separate lump sum fixed price contract for the CSA building package element of the works.

National Institute for Bio-Processing Research & Training Facility, Dublin

The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) is a world-class institute that provides training and research solutions for the bioprocessing industry in state of the art facilities.

NIBRT is located in Dublin, Ireland and is based on an innovative collaboration between University College Dublin (UCD), Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University (DCU) and Institute of Technology, Sligo.

A 65,000m² facility built as a medium-scale bio-processing plant comprising seven research laboratories, a bio-processing pilot plant and training / office facilities completed in 2011 at a value of €13.5m.

We were awarded the construction of this unique facility following an open public tendering process which placed an equal emphasis on quality as on cost.

Sisk’s dedicated pharma division clearly demonstrated their knowledge and experience in winning the project. Getting the project built right first-time with seamless handover between all stages and stakeholders is critical for all projects, but particularly for this client, representative of the different colleges. Having built over €1.4 billion in pharmaceutical facilities since 2000, many of which included large laboratory facilities Sisk had the competence to meet the cost and schedule targets while still constructing a facility that met all laboratory quality standards.

NIBRT which is part funded by the IDA Ireland, has a remit to support the development of the existing bioprocessing industry in Ireland and to attract additional bioprocessing companies to Ireland by:

• Training highly skilled personnel for the bioprocessing industry.
• Conducting world-class research in key areas of bioprocessing.
• Providing a critical mass of multipurpose bioprocessing facilities.

This project entailed the construction of the two storey, 6,000m², bioprocess simulated GMP pilot plant, laboratory, training and office facility, including receipt of free issue process equipment and a novated automation contract.

Pfizer, Newbridge, Co. Kildare

This was a €104m project for a major three-storey extension to tablet manufacturing at Wyeth Pharmaceutical, Co. Kildare. This consists of new process building and ancillary services, through isolated dispensing, granulation, milling/drying, blending, compression and coating of the tablets from cold storage of raw material through to fully coated tablets ready for packaging.

The process is spread over the three floors of the production building being supported by post hoists, automated goods vehicles, discharge stations and lifts.

• Main Production Building 18,000m² (6,500m² of clean space)
• Office & Laboratory Block 1,750m²
• CUB Building 1,500m²

Abbvie Creon, Co. Cork

This project required the construction of a new four storey production area as an extension to the existing buildings located to the east and south of the proposed production area.

There were a number of tie-ins to the existing building along the south and eastern facades of the new extension at various levels.

Boston Scientific, Galway

The project required the refurbishment of an existing facility, construction of 3,000m² of high-end office space including toilets and canteen facilities in accordance with the requirements of LEED. This project was executed over a number of phases to respect the pre-existence of an existing sitting tenant.

The works required structural improvement to the existing steel frame, the formation of new structural openings and the removal of ACM containment in the pre-existing vinyl floor tiles and adhesive. This project was carried out in a live environment at all times. It proved challenging from a logistics perspective with the diversion and maintenance of existing thoroughfares – both pedestrian and vehicular – as well as external works executed within a live industrial campus (gas main, car park improvements etc.).

The project was challenging from an operations perspective by virtue of the existence of a sitting tenant with whom space, access etc. had to be shared. This was managed through daily liaison on the ground, weekly planning and formal weekly review meetings.

Janssen, Beerse, Belgium

Sisk provided construction management and commissioning services to J&J for their new laboratory facility.

Jannsen Biologics, Leiden, The Netherlands

Sisk were tasked with the construction management of a pilot vaccine facility within an empty shell of an operational biologics facility. This included the demolition of walls, floors and services, installation of new underground double contained drainage, bio-kill sumps and ground floor slab.

We also constructed a new concrete mezzanine area over the complete production area, new cleanrooms and installed complete new processes, mechanical, electrical & instrumentation, sprinklers, HVAC, BMS and automation systems, equipment and process systems over the existing live production facility including modification of some existing production areas.

MSD, Burgwedel, Germany

Sisk provided construction management services to MSD for retrofitting works to a vaccines facility in Burgwedel, Germany. This project was completed in 2019.

Johnson & Johnson, Shaufhaussen, Switzerland

Sisk provided construction management & safety management services to J&J on a number of capital projects at their Schaffhausen campus in Switzerland between 2016-2019.

Lonza, Visp, Switzerland

Sisk provided pre construction management services to Lonza on the NSYNC Biotech project in Visp Switzerland in 2019.

Johnson & Johnson, Omrix, Israel

Providing a range of project delivery services to Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (a Johnson & Johnson company) since 2011 including project controls support, CM services, engineering and concept design, bid management and contractor selection at various locations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.