The newly-opened National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) in Dublin - a global centre of excellence for training and research in biopharmaceuticals - has been equipped with technology from Watson-Marlow Pumps Group.  

The €57million Institute, which was officially opened on 9 June 2011, is a world-class bioprocessing facility, built as the result of a collaboration between University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University and the Institute of Technology, Sligo. It has been primarily funded by the Government of Ireland through Ireland's inward investment promotion agency, IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency).

A purpose-built facility, NIBRT has been designed to closely replicate a realistic GMP simulated, operational manufacturing environment, complete with market-leading, state-of-the-art equipment. To ensure optimum accuracy and reliability for all process pumping, the Institute has installed cutting edge technology from leading suppliers of process technology and laboratory equipment including Watson-Marlow. The company has supplied more than twenty 520 and 620 series peristaltic pumps to both the upstream and downstream pilot plants.

Also in use in the NIBRT Fill-Finish facility is an FPC50W aseptic peristaltic filling and capping system supplied by Flexicon Liquid Filling, a part of the Watson-Marlow Group. 

The NIBRT suite comprises a simulated grade C/B clean room with material airlock, two-stage personnel gowning airlocks, media preparation area and filling room, which is equipped with a Flexicon pilot-scale filling machine under RAB. The NIBRT Fill-Finish facility is designed to mimic operations in an aseptic vial filling suite.

Rachel Pallett, UK and Europe Sales and Marketing Manager, comments: "It is impossible to overemphasise the importance of the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland, home to eight out of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world. The opening of NIBRT represents a significant new investment in pharmaceutical development, which will undoubtedly have an incredible impact, bringing cutting-edge knowledge to an already-thriving industry. As a company that supplies into the bio-pharmaceutical industry, Watson-Marlow knows only too well how important it is for businesses to stay one step ahead of the competition by optimising processes and procedures."

For more information visit www.wmpg.co.uk