SCHOTT Pharma AG – Construction of a New Production Facility for Primary Pharmaceutical Packaging

SCHOTT Pharma’s portfolio includes storage and delivery systems for medications, such as prefillable glass and polymer syringes, cartridges, vials and ampoules. The company has seen strong growth for years, particularly in prefillable syringes made from the shatterproof high‑end polymer COC. A first major milestone was the expansion of production capacities at the St. Gallen site. The second milestone followed with the modern new building in Müllheim, which also produces polymer syringes. In addition to a pioneering production building with state‑of‑the‑art cleanroom technology, a pilot center for innovation development, a logistics center and an integrated administrative area were constructed. As in St. Gallen, SCHOTT Pharma once again entrusted IE Plast with the development of its new high‑tech facility — ensuring reliable planning and execution in record time. .  .

The Challenge

With the Müllheim facility, SCHOTT Pharma aimed to rapidly absorb rising global demand for prefillable polymer syringes. The company set an uncompromising deadline for production start‑up and defined a strict cost framework for both planning and execution. This required deep expertise in industrial production within plastics and life sciences, extensive knowledge of cleanroom and GMP requirements, and highly reliable delivery within an ambitious schedule. These conditions were intensified by pandemic‑related staff and material shortages as well as several customer‑driven change requests during the implementation phase.

Key Success Factors

The cleanroom and building services concept created by IE Plast for the Müllheim site is entirely process‑based and designed for modular, gradual expansion. Capacity reserves for future growth were integrated from the outset. IE Plast was responsible not only for planning intralogistics and cleanroom environments but also for supporting SCHOTT Pharma during qualification. This close alignment of qualification and construction planning shortened lead times and increased the overall efficiency and quality of the project.

Expanding Cleanroom Capacity

SCHOTT Pharma has been part of the dynamic growth in this market segment for years and needed to expand capacities again only one year after opening the new site. IE Plast was commissioned once more — having already planned the original factory and integrated the expansion concept into the initial masterplan. As a result, all prerequisites were already in place to implement the expansion quickly, efficiently and without disrupting production.

“Time to Market” is a decisive success factor for SCHOTT Pharma. Accordingly, a binding and ambitious schedule was set for this project as well — tightened further by customer change requests during implementation. The entire integration of the new cleanroom production lines had to be executed without jeopardizing ongoing operations. This required precise construction site logistics, disciplined coordination and a robust hygiene concept.

The masterplan implemented by IE Plast during the original construction paid off substantially:
the modular cleanroom and building services concept already included provisions for future expansion. The IE qualification team also seamlessly integrated the new systems into the existing qualification framework established during initial construction.

The Result:
Effortless integration of new cleanroom production lines and smooth expansion of systems for cleanroom ventilation, raw material conveying and compressed air supply — all without structural modifications and without interfering with ongoing production.