The pharmaceutical manufacturing industry has seen rapid acceleration in recent years, due to factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and new therapeutic modalities. With this rapid acceleration, the industry has also seen an influx of new challenges to overcome – but more importantly, we’ve also seen the introduction of new technologies and methods.
In this week’s article, we’ll cover some of the challenges currently facing the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, and the recent advancements working to address those challenges.
Challenges
Production Costs
According to a 2022 Deloitte Insights report, it costs, on average, $2 million to bring a new drug to market.
Beyond rising research & development (R&D) costs, manufacturers must also grapple with the high costs of labour required for increasingly complex drugs. Additionally, these complex drugs often have shorter shelf lives, meaning companies must put greater care into curating the supply chain from beginning to end.
Smaller Drug Batches
As drugs become more complex, manufacturers are required to produce them in smaller batches. For example, advanced therapy medicinal products, such as cell and gene therapies and bioengineered tissues, cannot be produced in large batches as they are highly specialized.
Developing individualized products will shift industry standards away from large reactors and vessels, creating higher labour, manufacturing, and R&D costs.
Quality Assurance
Every drug manufactured must go through strict quality control and assurance measures.
These measures become more complex and costly when we bring specialized drugs into the mix, taking up more time and resources than has previously been the norm.
Advancements
Generative AI
The use of artificial intelligence in the pharmaceutical industry isn’t new, but the introduction of generative AI will transform drug development.
This new technology will allow for greater automation and optimization during manufacturing and clinical trials, improving efficiency and safety. The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) will also enhance the understanding of biological and molecular detection, which can be used to increase speed and quality in early drug discovery processes.
Personalized Medicine
As drugs become more and more complex, the possibility of creating personalized therapies becomes greater.
Techniques like advanced analytics, ML, and quantum computing will allow clinical research to focus on developing treatments based on the precise conditions of individual patients, rather than a general disease.
Biotechnology Systems
Biotechnology systems are based on a technical procedure that evaluates data on a much larger scale and have the ability to change how biological and biotechnological research is conducted.
These systems allow for a new paradigm for understanding the interrelationships between networks of biological processes. They can be used to build bioprocesses for producing pharmaceuticals, commodities, and fine chemicals, and manufacture fuels, polymers, and other materials.
Looking Forward
While the rapid advancement of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry has introduced many new challenges, it has also inspired transformative advancements that will shape the future.
If you are a pharmaceutical manufacturing executive or solution provider, and you’d like to join an exclusive conversation on the challenges and opportunities facing the industry, join Executive Platforms at the Pharma Manufacturing World Summit in Boston, MA on May 13-15, 2024. Visit pharmamanworld.com to learn more!
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Colleen Douglas
Senior Marketing Coordinator
Executive Platforms
Colleen joined the Executive Platforms team in May of 2022. She has five years of experience in event marketing, with an emphasis on copywriting and digital strategies.
Colleen has a BA Honours in Business Communications from Brock University and a Diploma in Digital Media Marketing from George Brown College.