Automating the Future of Fill/Finish

Just a decade ago, the primary focus for bio/pharma research companies and manufacturers was large-batch blockbusters or traditional drugs, remarks Andreas Mattern, vice-president Strategy and Global Product Management Pharma at Syntegon. “Today, these medicines continue to make an important contribution to human health. Some of them, such as blood thinners, painkillers, or insulin, have become an indispensable part of the drugstore shelf. They are produced on lines in 24-hour operations,” he says. “Further new drugs in this realm (e.g., a high-dose injectable version of the incretin mimetic semaglutide) will continue to push the need for high-speed production.”

However, there is an apparent drive towards more niche areas. “Special and often personalized medications are now available to cure or at least delay some life-threatening illnesses. Cellular and molecular biotechnology has been accompanied by a revolution in pharmaceutical manufacturing: while high-speed, high-throughput lines used to be in the greatest demand, more and more pharmaceutical companies are now investing in the development and commercialization of small-volume medicines, which have very different production and filling requirements,” Mattern asserts.

“The increasing prevalence of advanced therapy medicinal products, such as cell and gene therapies and bioengineered tissue products, shows that the industry is specializing steadily,” Mattern continues. “These drugs are not manufactured on huge lines. Instead, the focus is on what is commonly known as small batch production.”