The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is the sole manufacturer of the drug substance Erwinase at its facility at Porton Down, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Erwinase is indicated for the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, a cancer which particularly affects children. The manufacturing process is complex, with many steps, and there is a desire to increase the productivity of the process by yield increases.
HPA became aware of the specialist data mining services provided by AJM Consulting through participation in iNets South West Biomedical, a European project that serves the Biomedical sector.
AJM Consulting worked with HPA to identify the steps leading to the greatest yield variability, and to pinpoint the process parameters which could be controlled to enable greater production efficiency.