CRB Report Investigates Pharma Facility Trends

A new report from CRB looks at how stakeholders in the biopharma value chain are navigating the disruption to business models caused by the pandemic and rising demand for ever-faster delivery of critical treatments, the company said in a Nov. 16. 2021 press release announcing the report’s availability. The Horizons: Life Sciences report combines a survey of biopharmaceutical industry leaders with analysis from CRB’s life sciences subject matter experts. Topics reviewed include project delivery, increasingly complex pipelines, digitalization, and other important topics.

According to the press release, one of the topics discussed in the report is the idea of “warp speed delivery.” Speed to market is a more significant business driver at the same time that companies face significant delays in their capital planning strategies, CRB reports. There is a push to Pharma 4.0, and companies aspire to operate digitally integrated facilities with predictive, real-time analytics within the next one to two years, reported CRB. Companies are moving away from traditional design-bid-build methods for large capital projects and are using artificial intelligence tools.

In cell and gene therapy, nearly half of the survey respondents reported plans to move away from autologous cell therapies to focus on modalities with fewer challenges, CRB reported. Viral vector gene technologies will continue to be used in the near term to produce genetically modified cell therapies to ensure quality and reduce operational costs. CRB reports that the survey indicates growing interest in RNA-based therapies and in oligonucleotides.

“Taming the disruption will require a whole new mindset, which casts off our industry’s conservative nature in favor of more innovation, more speed, and more flexibility in the name of more lives saved,” said Noel Maestre, CRB’s vice-president of Life Sciences, in the report.

Source: CRB