The pharmaceutical industry is warming to the concept of smart manufacturing — and predictive maintenance in particular. The reason for that trend is partly financial. A single hour of downtime can potentially cost millions of dollars in lost productivity, and predictive maintenance promises to make maintenance more efficient and effective. One traditional barrier to predictive…
India curbs COVID-19 vaccine exports as infections rise
After the number of COVID-19 infections began to incline steeply, India has decided to retain most of the vaccines produced in the country. The country has also announced plans to lower the eligibility requirements to all citizens 45 or older starting April 1. The Serum Institute of India is one of the world’s biggest vaccine…
Pharma’s been slow to adopt Industry 4.0 — but that could change
The pharma industry has been relatively slow to embrace concepts such as Industry 4.0, but COVID-19 is serving as a catalyst for sweeping changes within the industry. The philosophy has roots in a German framework that prioritizes digitization to drive manufacturing efficiency, promising that cyber-physical systems will usher in the next industrial revolution. The Industry…
Honeywell to acquire Sparta Systems for $1.3B
Honeywell (NYSE:HON) announced today that it will buy Sparta Systems (Hamilton, N.J.) and its medtech and pharma quality management software for $1.3 billion. Officials at Honeywell and Sparta Systems’ present owner New Mountain Capital expect the all-cash deal to close by the end of Q1 2021, pending certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The…
5 considerations when evaluating pharma business intelligence platforms
Some pharma companies spend millions of dollars on advanced analytics, business intelligence platforms and cloud storage and end up with little to show for it. The uncertain financial climate should provide an opportunity for pharma companies to reevaluate how they market their products using business intelligence platforms and advanced analytics. The pharmaceutical sector has traditionally…
Juganu touts its light-disinfection tech in healthcare environments
Juganu, an Israeli startup, has developed a smart indoor light technology to fight against COVID-19. The company’s J. Protect technology offers the potential to protect pharmaceutical professionals in laboratories and other settings against the novel coronavirus and other pathogens. The company has recently begun several pilot programs with leading health institutions after clinically validating its…
Digital shift management cures pharma processing communication woes
The increasing complexity of drugs — including vaccines, biologics, sterile injectables and cell therapies — brings pharmaceutical companies significant manufacturing challenges during the pandemic. In turn, this complexity drives supply chain disruptions and changes to business and operational processes to accommodate social distancing, remote working and quarantining. Some pharmaceutical manufacturers have prioritized the manufacture of…
Stirling Ultracold prepares for COVID-19-driven need for ultra-cold transport
Among the numerous logistical challenges to providing COVID-19 vaccines around the globe, temperature is receiving little attention. Relatively few logistics or healthcare organizations have freezers capable of cooling down to –80° C (–112° F). But vaccines using gene-based technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA) require such ultralow temperatures. Against that backdrop, Stirling Ultracold has announced…
How Pfizer accidentally leaked data on hundreds of patients
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), a COVID-19 vaccine candidate frontrunner, inadvertently leaked data on patients taking drugs to treat cancer, nerve pain, erectile dysfunction, menopause and other conditions. An improperly configured Google Cloud storage bucket caused the exposure of personally identifiable data from October 2018 to July 2020, according to VPNMentor researchers. Also included in the cloud were…
Amazon, Onica to support digital health for Teva’s Digihaler
Teva Respiratory (NYSE:TEVA) announced that it is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Onica to build and host its digital health platform. The Teva Pharmaceuticals affiliate’s digital health platform is a cloud-based backend data system designed to support its FDA-approved Digihaler portfolio of breath-actuated digital inhalers and its companion mobile app that tracks inhaler events…