After a virus invades, Genzyme scrubs down:
Contamination cleanup halts weeks of genetic disorder drugs' production

By Robert Weisman, The Boston Globe

Dozens of decontamination specialists are busy stripping insulation from pipes at the company’s biotech drug plant overlooking the Charles River in Allston. Their prep work involves dismantling equipment, peeling gaskets from the lids of 2,000-liter vats called bioreactors, and scrubbing down every surface in sight with spore-killing bleach.

When everything is ready, they will wheel in the “vaporizers.’’ The squat machines, which look like industrial versions of the Star Wars robot R2-D2, will disperse clouds of vaporized hydrogen peroxide throughout the 185,000-square-foot production area. But first, the workers will be evacuated.

“It kills all known living things,’’ said Mark R. Bamforth, senior vice president for corporate operations at Cambridge-based Genzyme.

For the full article from the Boston Times, Click here...

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