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.
