CFPE History
The Consultancy Forum of Pharmaceutical Engineers (CFPE) was formed in mid -1997 by OilEquip Limited, a process industry consultancy firm, in conjunction with senior engineers from three pharmaceutical companies, namely:
Jim Longhorn, Genzyme
Andy Styles, Rhone Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi Aventis)
Martin Bradney, Nycomed Amersham (now GE Healthcare)
The principal objective of the founders was to establish a Best Practice Forum, open only to engineering, maintenance, production and quality control personnel from pharmaceutical manufacturers, which would:
- provide a vehicle for outsourcing technical, maintenance and operating issues and problems.
- provide a means for establishing common industry procedures and specifications.
- provide a vehicle for pharma equipment users to work among themselves and with suppliers to improve technical support and customer service.
Member services are delivered three ways via quarterly committee meetings, member email network and CFPE web site.
At the first CFPE General Membership Committee (GMC) meeting in July 1997, a framework was set up wherein engineers as well as representatives from maintenance, production, quality control and operations meet every quarter to pursue their common objectives.
Another major dimension of CFPE's activities is the production-oriented working parties covering secondary operations. These are:
- Tablet Packaging Best Practices Committee (TPBPC)
- Solids Processing and Tablet Compression Committee (SPTCC)
- Sterile Operations Committee (SOC).
According to members, the major benefits derived have been the continuing opportunity to exchange information on issues / problems, to benchmark against one another, and to begin to establish "best practices" in pharmaceutical production operations. In addition, as users of equipment and services, CFPE members, as well as designated, important suppliers, have continuing opportunities to improve working relationships, discuss technical and service needs and prepare common specifications and checklists.
Since the latter part of 2004, ten primary API sites in the UK and Ireland have joined CFPE and participate in its General Membership Committee along with 40 secondary pharmaceutical manufacturing sites.