Robotics & Automation On The Brink Of Transforming Pharma QC

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need to speed up getting therapeutics and vaccines to the market. Massive investments are leading to progress at all stages, from lead discovery and optimization to clinical trials, and further along the value chain in manufacturing and quality control (QC). In QC, there is still huge potential to accelerate the release of safe products. Committed to staying one step ahead of customer expectations, we at MilliporeSigma are partnering with companies in the pharmaceutical industry to automate the processes involved in microbiological QC testing. This approach to reducing human intervention by introducing robotic arms and/or stand-alone automated hardware into workflows, flanked by enhanced lab digitalization, carries the additional potential of lowering costs and minimizing the risk posed by human errors.

Here, we review some of the projects underway to boost the reliability, data integrity, and productivity of microbiological testing.