Resource management and circular economy
Claus Henriksen
October 15, 2026
Modernising pharma sites without stopping production
Life science facilities must expand and modernise while production keeps running. Ramboll’s new guide, ”Future-proofing your life science site”, explores the decisions that help protect quality, compliance, and operational continuity along the way.
Modernising pharma sites without stopping production
Life science facilities must expand and modernise while production keeps running. Ramboll’s new guide, ”Future-proofing your life science site”, explores the decisions that help protect quality, compliance, and operational continuity along the way.
Many life science companies are investing in new manufacturing capacity. But growth does not always begin with an empty site and a blank sheet of paper.
Existing facilities are also being expanded, electrified, modernised, and prepared for new products and processes. At an existing pharmaceutical site, that changes the equation: new infrastructure must be delivered while operations continue as planned.
“At a live site, you are designing the future while the present is still running. You cannot treat operations as something that starts after handover,” says Anders Hummer, Global Life Sciences & Pharma Sector Lead Director at Ramboll.
At a live site, you are designing the future while the present is still running. You cannot treat operations as something that starts after handover
Global Life Sciences & Pharma Sector Lead Director at Ramboll.
Built, connect, commission, and qualify
A power system may need upgrading without interrupting critical loads. Utilities may need to be rerouted around validated production. Cleanroom work may take place alongside controlled environments that have to remain operational.
Some existing assets may have years of useful life left. Others may become constraints when production expands or a new product introduces different requirements.
Early in the project, the question is not simply whether something can be built. It is whether it can be built, connected, commissioned, and qualified while protecting production continuity, quality, and compliance.
“Production, continuity, quality, and compliance have to influence the project from the beginning,” says Hummer.
Production, continuity, quality, and compliance have to influence the project from the beginning
Global Life Sciences & Pharma Sector Lead Director at Ramboll.
Balance cost, scope, and quality
Those operational realities also change the CapEx conversation.
Life science projects have to balance cost, scope, schedule, and quality. A lower-cost solution can quickly become expensive if it complicates qualification, validation, GMP compliance, or future expansion.
Equally, replacing every existing asset or building maximum flexibility into every system can consume capital without creating equivalent value.
Anders Hummer says: “At a live site, cost, scope, and quality still have to be looked at together, but the practical question is what must change now, what can be reused, and what can sensibly be phased.”
In investment question therefore goes beyond initial cost. Qualification, compliant production, resilience, and future expansion all influence whether a lower-cost solution ultimately delivers better value.
The challenge is to understand what must change now, what can be reused, and what can sensibly be phased.
Modernising a live pharmaceutical facility means changing the site without losing sight of the operation already inside it. That is where future-fit planning becomes practical.
Make future-fit planning practical
The people operating a facility often see risks that are difficult to spot from a project perspective. They know where shutdown windows are limited, which utilities are critical, and which processes cannot tolerate disruption.
That matters before decisions are fixed
Ramboll’s guide highlights the importance of looking at site configuration, utilities, cleanrooms, permitting, infrastructure, and operations as connected decisions.
For existing sites, three questions can help focus those decisions:
- What must we change now?
- What can we reuse or phase?
- Which future options must we protect while production continues?
Want to know more?
Anders Hummer
Global Service Line Director - Industry & Infrastructure Facilities, Buildings
+45 60 36 17 67
