In March 2018, more than 640 attendees met in Rome for the 2018 Europe Annual Conference.The record attendance and roster of 70 speakers made it the largest ISPE Europe meeting to date. Sessions covered the paradigm shift driven by digitalization as well as factors such as mass serialization and the need for data integrity.
The smart factory, the factory of the future, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and Industry 4.0. These are buzzwords that populate a new manufacturing world triggered by digitalization. “Pharma 4.0” is a holistic operating model for pharmaceutical factories and supply chains of the future based on Industry 4.0 capabilities, digital maturity, and data integrity by design1 (Figure 1). Created by ISPE’s Pharma 4.0 Special Interest Group (SIG), it is fueled by trends such as big data, interconnectivity, collaborative robotics, artificial intelligence, and distributed cloud-based architectures to develop next-generation therapies that may enable lab-to-patient or even patient-to-patient value chains. Pharma 4.0 is the digitalized operations model of a pharmaceutical organization.
Young Professionals (YPs) often ask us about the value of attending ISPE’s large international conferences. As an answer, we’re happy to report that YP participation is going from strength to strength at these events. This year’s Europe Annual Meeting in Rome was no exception, featuring YP track leads, YP keynote speakers, and a second successful YP Hackathon. We’re already looking forward to the YP events that will be hosted at the ISPE Annual Meeting and Expo later this year in Philadelphia, and at the 2019 Europe Annual Meeting in Dublin.
In 2020, the world was grappling with how to slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and appropriately treat people who had the COVID-19 infection without approved therapies or vaccines. In two years, there are multiple vaccines and treatments along with great knowledge about the virus—and about how the industry mobilized, partnered, and achieved tremendous strides in addressing the global...
Operation Warp Speed coordinated US government support of the pharmaceutical industry’s effort to develop and deliver vaccines and therapeutics across the United States to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. This article provides an inside look at the work done by this team to address the threat posed by COVID-19.
Each year, ISPE celebrates innovations and advances in pharmaceutical manufacturing technology with its Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) program. This year, we added a new category, Social Impact, to recognize companies that developed new standards and practices to prevent drug shortages and increase patients’ access to medicine, designed new tools or techniques that reduced the cost of drug...
