Jeff Zacherl, industrial vertical market lead – Pharma/Life Science, Siemens discusses how pharma manufacturers can accelerate new product time-to-market.
Shutterstock - Robert Way
Pharmaceutical production is recognised as an important benefit for our modern lives. According to IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science total spending and global demand for medicines will increase to approximately $1.9 trillion by 2027. New drug launches and wider use of recently launched brands will drive an annual growth of 3-6% in spending.
For US pharmaceutical manufacturers, a critical success factor in meeting this demand will be rapid manufacturing and delivery of new drug products. Time-to-market directly impacts a firm’s profitability and competitive advantage. The limited window of patent rights, plus the health of millions who wait and depend on these drugs means that products must get to consumers as fast as possible without compromising drug quality and safety.
In the race against time, once a drug is approved, pharmaceutical companies must rapidly design and build the facilities, or repurpose existing facilities, where the new drugs will be made–all while efficiently attaining FDA validation of the new medicine.
This is where Siemens partners with Pharmaceutical & Life Science teams for system design support, construction, and commissioning technologies.
Seek out the right combination of technical and industry expertise
To create a smart building in a timely fashion, customers and construction teams need to engage with Siemens early for design collaboration support and optimisation of system delivery during construction.
Siemens helps reduce time-to-market in three important ways:
- Early selection of switchgear for a facility is critical for timely delivery schedules -– Power systems are critical to a facility’s operational resilience and construction timeline. Switchgear manufacturing lead time can be a major limiter during the construction phase, so planning and design must start early for long lead components. Siemens engineers have decades of experience in modelling loads for the pharmaceutical industry to create the preliminary designs necessary for manufacturing collaboration.
- Smart Buildings require advanced IT/OT networks with data security at the heart of it all – Siemens networking engineers and product experts are available for early engagement to ensure designs meet security requirements and employ the latest and most secure solutions available such as BACnet/SC (Secure Connect) for building automation systems. Network planning and security will enhance remote support options to ease the demanding workload on advanced facility engineering teams tasked with maintaining a complex facility. (It is also critical during construction phases to account for network connectivity and access to enable efficient system commission efforts.)
- FDA approval support – Projects stall if validation resources are assigned too late or are unavailable. These expert human resources are hard to come by. Siemens Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) validation experts support validation of GMP environments to gain FDA approval in the shortest time possible. Early collaboration on GMP documentation ensures accelerated commissioning and validation when a project nears completion.