Teva CFS Book English

20 The first robot, the first procedures, the first methods “The lab always led the way”, says Ester Abramovich, who ran the Analytic Lab at the Kfar Saba site from the beginning until 2001, “in the late 70s and 80s we were the first lab at Teva and in Israel that had a robot for analytic tests”. Over time, the lab purchased numerous instruments, “I made an effort for there to be as little manual work as possible because I knew it was a source of error. Therefore we implemented a lot of new technologies like HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) - a device to separate the active substance out of solutions. We were the first lab that wrote the procedures for Teva, the first that developed the sampling method and the method for managing raw materials and packaging materials. Even with regards to employee assessment, we led and together with Human Resources headed by Yossef Schumacher, we wrote an instruction manual for managers on the topic in the 1980s. 200 Successful Inspections In the decades in which Ester Abramovich ran the lab, around 200 inspections were conducted by the FDA and other health authorities : “We were the only department that received a personal greeting card from the FDA inspector... The inspectors were always taken to the lab first to make a positive first impression because we knew that if the lab excelled then the entire plant would excel. We even prepared a booklet with guidelines for all the departments on how to successfully pass an FDA inspection”. The lab tested approx. 2000 products per year, including raw materials. Since the standard testing methods are very lengthy, the staff developed an efficient technique to test raw materials based on reliable statistical sampling, which has been documented in the professional literature and earned the lab accolades. Ester even instructed the Ministry of Health on implementing GMP procedures. A lab for new immigrants The lab’s strengths didn’t manifest solely in pharmaceutical chemistry, but also in its interpersonal chemistry. Ester recounts: “Our lab was a Tower of Babel. People from all over the globe worked there: South Africa, North America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and more. It was very important to me that in Israel people would speak Hebrew and that everyone understood each other, and indeed all the immigrants learned Hebrew at the lab”. ▲ Right to left: Ruza Shpigelman, Ester Abramovich, Helena Knobel - the Lab Secretary, and Iris Rasiazek ▲ Ester Abramovich (left) hosts the Israeli President the late Yitzhak Navon, on a visit to the lab ▲ Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s visit to the Analytic Lab with department employees