Precision Protection: How Mars Air Curtains Safeguard Genentech's Biotech Operations

Challenge

Biotech manufacturing must take place in a precision-controlled environment, designed to support high product yield and high-value products. Successful pharmaceutical and biotech companies continually seek out new manufacturing strategies to improve their operations to both protect their product from contamination and realize optimal profitability. Amid a highly regulated environment, Genentech operates the world’s largest biotechnology manufacturing plant producing pharmaceutical proteins from mammalian cells, in compliance with the most stringent FDA protocols. Set on a sprawling 100-acre lot, the Vacaville, California facility hosts two cell culture plants with more than 427,000 square feet of space dedicated to manufacturing, maintenance, laboratories, administration offices, and warehousing. Regulations are stringent, industry standards demand excellence, and strong corporate values focused on integrity require a strong corporate partner like Mars Air Systems and their renowned air door.

The Solution

With over 24 Mars Air Systems ETL Sanitation Certified air curtain door units, ranging in size from 36 ft in to 96 ft in, now in place to provide protection throughout the complex of buildings, the Genentech facility enjoys the benefits of the Mars commercial air curtain defense against incursions of dust, dirt, flying pests, and wind that would otherwise prove highly disruptive to the internal environment and derail operations. ETL-certified products that have undergone rigorous testing by the independent third-party testing organization, ETL Intertek, a national testing laboratory recognized by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration that tests to the standards of UL, ANSI, CSA, ASTM and NFPA. Now this facility, part of the company Fortune Magazine recognizes as one of the Top 100 companies to work for, can operate their Vacaville facility with the security of protection throughout the building complex at every exterior door opening.