As the discovery of new pharmaceuticals continues to soar, a tremendous opportunity exists in accelerating the transition from biology to process manufacturing of new medical modalities. A deep understanding of how to automate process manufacturing through advanced analytics is critical.
In a recent interview1 with Rahul Singhvi, CEO of National Resilience (Resilience), an Applied Ventures portfolio company says, “…common manufacturing solutions used widely in other industries – standardization, automation, robotics, real-time data analysis – aren’t available or are under-utilized in the biomanufacturing production processes. This leads to each drug maker having to pave their own path with manufacturing, resulting in a cottage industry of solutions”.
Resilience’s mission and vision is to democratize pharma manufacturing, closely resembling Amazon’s model to standardize cloud web services. There is an opportunity for a company like Resilience to excel at providing a platform for clinical through commercial manufacturing to transform supply chain resiliency. This enables both traditional and startup Pharma companies to focus on research and discovery of new molecules and avoid the burden of securing additional funding to expand manufacturing facilities.
There are lessons that we can learn from other industries on how to improve business models by deploying innovative digital architectures. As an example, in the semiconductor industry, TSMC has had significant success in securing more than half of the $42 billion foundry segment by providing a dedicated “pure play” manufacturing business model2. This has allowed chip designers to specialize in their specific segment while TSMC excels at optimized platform manufacturing. This is exactly what Pharma needs to get therapies to their patients faster—a partner like TSMC that improves quality and productivity of manufacturing through a highly mature digital architecture stack.
Next generation pharma manufacturers who are onboard in deploying full automation by migrating to digital platforms, can transition faster from connected, to predictive, and finally to adaptive plants. These manufacturers will be equipped to thrive vs survive in this complex industry.
Today, Pharma manufacturers who are using Applied’s SmartFactory Rx® digital platform coupled with Applied’s team of automation experts are already accessing real-time capabilities to handle advanced analytics, scheduling, inspection, and maintenance required to accelerate productivity and quality in plant operations.
