Feliza Mirasol is the science editor for 

Feliza Mirasol

United States-based Latigo Biotherapeutics (Latigo), a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in non-opioid pain treatments that target pain at its source, announced on March 17, 2025 that has closed a Series B round of funding with $150 million (1). The funds will be used to advance the company’s highly selective Nav1.8 inhibitors, which are currently in clinical development for the non-opioid treatment of pain. The funds will also be used to develop the company’s broader pipeline of drug candidates.

Led by funds managed by Blue Owl Capital, the financing round included participation from Deep Track Capital, Access Biotechnology, Qatar Investment Authority, Cormorant Asset Management, Sanofi Ventures, Rock Springs Capital, UPMC Enterprises, and Kern Capital. Westlake Village BioPartners, Foresite Capital, 5AM Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments—already existing investors—also contributed to the financing round (1).

“The need for non-opioid pain treatments has never been more urgent, and this financing allows us to accelerate the development of our robust portfolio of pain medicines that have the potential to transform the treatment landscape,” said Nima Farzan, chief executive officer of Latigo Biotherapeutics, in a company press release (1). “We appreciate the support of our new and existing investors as we work to bring best-in-class, non-addictive pain treatments to patients.”

In August 2024, Latigo reported positive Phase I results for its lead non-opioid pain medicine candidate, LTG-001, an oral, selective Nav1.8 inhibitor. LTG-001 is in development for treating acute pain at its source. The Phase I trial, a first-in-human clinical trial, showed that LTG-001 was well tolerated and had rapid absorption (2). The Phase I trial aims to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of the candidate in healthy volunteers through single-ascending dose and multiple-ascending dose cohorts.

Earlier in March 2025, LTG-001 was granted fast track designation by FDA after demonstrating a favorable safety and tolerability profile with predictable pharmacokinetics in the Phase I trial. LTG-001 works by blocking peripheral sensory neurons that are responsible for pain signals. Blocking these peripheral neurons prevents the transmission of pain signals to the central nervous system (3).

“We are pleased [FDA] has granted [f]ast [t]rack designation to LTG-001, recognizing its potential to transform the treatment landscape for acute pain by targeting pain at its source,” Farzan said in a press release issued at the time the fast track designation was granted (3). “This marks an important milestone for Latigo and reinforces the promise of LTG-001 as a highly selective, well-tolerated non-opioid approach for treating pain. With this designation, we look forward to working closely with [FDA] to accelerate development and bring this much-needed non-opioid medicine to patients rapidly.”

Meanwhile, as part of the Series B financing, Kevin Raidy, senior managing director at Blue Owl Capital, has joined Latigo’s board of directors. “The field of pain management is long overdue for innovation beyond opioids, and we believe Latigo is well-positioned to advance novel, non-addictive treatments that could make a real difference for patients,” Raidy said in the March 17 press release (1).

Latigo Biotherapeutics Closes $150 Million in Series B Financing to Advance Non-Opioid Pain Therapeutics.

 Press Release. March 17, 2025.
2. Latigo Biotherapeutics. Latigo Biotherapeutics Announces Positive Phase 1 Data for Lead Non-Opioid Pain Medicine Candidate and Appoints Neil Singla, M.D., Chief Medical Officer. Press Release. Aug. 19, 2024.
3. Latigo Biotherapeutics. Latigo Biotherapeutics Granted FDA Fast Track Designation for LTG-001, Potential Best-in-Class Nav1.8 Inhibitor for the Non-Opioid Treatment of Acute Pain. Press Release. March 3, 2025.

Articles

With financing led by Blue Owl Capital, Latigo will use the funds to further develop non-opioid pain treatments as well as develop other candidates in its pipeline.

Latigo Biotherapeutics Raises $150 Million to Advance Non-Opioid Pain Therapeutics

A discussion on the most significant/innovative ingredients over the past year and a look ahead at new innovative ingredients anticipated. 

DCAT Week 2025: Key Ingredients in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

In an interview with the PharmTech Group ahead of DCAT Week 2025, Christine Mya-San, a global account manager at Roquette Pharma Solutions, highlights the standout pharmaceutical ingredients in the past year. These important ingredients are those that logically address the pharmaceutical industry's biggest topics and biggest challenges, she says. 

A good example of such ingredients are low nitrite excipients that support drug manufacturers and their ongoing mission to reduce the risk posed by nitrosamines, she points out. Roquette has worked to assess and certify its existing low-nitrite products to support reformulation efforts. In addition, the company is developing solutions to enhance medication adherence, such as β-cyclodextri

 (Kleptose DC), which improves solubility and provides effective taste-masking, and mannitol (Pearlitol 200 GT), which offers enhanced compressibility and resistance to tablet capping, thus enabling the production of smaller, more convenient mini-tablets, Mya-San notes.

Looking ahead, Mya-San anticipates that pharmaceutical ingredients such as high-performance tablet coatings will optimize tablet manufacturing compared to traditional sugar coatings. "Recently, we put the spotlight on high-performance coatings, highlighting features such as low processing temperatures, which help in two-fold: first, for reduced energy usage, and second for that lowered nitrosamine formulation [risk]," she states.

Meanwhile, in terms of innovation, she highlights the potential of 3D drug printing and artificial intelligence to play a central role in the identification and large-scale production of new therapeutic ingredients. Three-dimensional printing, for example, could enable the printing of customized medicines tailored to individual patient needs, including the combination of multiple medications into a single dosage form.

DCAT Week 2025 is being held March 17–20 in New York City.

Christine Mya-San, Global Account Manager, Roquette Pharma Solutions

Christine Mya-San is a global account manager at Roquette Pharma Solutions. Her love of the sciences started as a Cancer Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Post fellowship, she started working at Covance as a risk mitigation specialist and sales representative. Mya-San has worked at notable companies such as Sigma-Aldrich (Merck KGaA) and at Honeywell Research Chemicals. Previous roles at Roquette include Americas channel management and global market management for the over-the-counter and nutraceuticals markets. Mya-San received her Bachelor of Science in biology at Dickinson College (Carlisle, Penn.) and her Master of Business Administration from Saint Louis University.

Videos

Roquette Pharma Solutions' Christine Mya-San, global account manager, highlights the most significant pharma ingredients at play over the past year and discusses future ingredient innovation.

Discussion on the need for continuous manufacturing in biologics manufacturing with Enzene's Russell Miller.

DCAT Week 2025: Industry Need for Continuous Biologics Manufacturing

Although perfusion-based biologics manufacturing has been around for decades, the biopharmaceutical industry has historically favored fed-batch processes. Now, however, regulators are showing increased interest in continuous manufacturing, similar to the adoption of continuous manufacturing in small molecule production, says Russell Miller, vice-president, Global Sales & Marketing, Enzene, in an interview with the PharmTech Group ahead of DCAT Week 2025, which is being held on March 17–20 in New York City.

Enzene has been pioneering the shift towards fully connected continuous bioprocessing, Miller emphasizes. He explains that only fully connected continuous manufacturing integrates the entire production process, from bioreactor to downstream purification, in a seamless flow. Fully connected continuous manufacturing platforms offer several key advantages, such as reducing the cost of goods, enhancing product quality by preventing degradation such as that seen in longer fed-batch runs, and boosting productivity up to 10-fold.

In addition, a fully connected continuous process can compress the number of batches required to support clinical trials, which can accelerate the path to clinic, he states. Yet, despite these advantages, only about 2% of biologics are currently manufactured continuously.

“[It] is my feeling that continuous manufacturing is on the forefront of a change in biologics manufacturing as we move forward. It has the opportunity to solve different problem statements that clients may have, whether it's product quality or cost of goods or productivity. [Those] are some pretty compelling areas that folks pay attention to when it comes to biologics, especially in the mammalian [cell culture-] based processes, because these are not things that happen in a day or so. Biologics manufacturing from mammalian-based systems take 12,14, 18, 20-plus days to execute, and that's a lot of time and planning. So, anything that can be done to make that time more efficient, more productive is beneficial to the industry,” Miller says.

Russell Miller, Vice-President, Global Sales & Marketing, Enzene

Russell Miller is a results-oriented business development leader with more than two decades of experience driving growth in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. His expertise spans analytical services, formulation development, and manufacturing, providing him with a deep understanding of the drug development process. Spending more than a decade at Catalent Pharma Solutions, he consistently exceeded sales targets and spearheaded strategic initiatives, including the successful reinvigoration of sales in the Northeast region and the design and implementation of a global Inside Sales Group. He has also held leadership roles at Vectura, ANI Pharmaceuticals, and Scotwork, consistently demonstrating his ability to establish companies as leading contract development and manufacturing organizations, reinvigorate sales funnels, and streamline operations. At Enzene, Miller's focus is on forging strategic partnerships and delivering solutions that exceed expectations, driving the company's continued success.

Russell Miller, vice-president of Global Sales & Marketing at Enzene, explains that continuous bioprocessing is poised to change biologics manufacturing moving forward. 

A discussion on aseptic sterile processing in pharmaceutical manufacturing with Simtra BioPharma Solutions' Lidia Serina.

A Discussion on Aseptic Processing for Sterile Injectable Manufacturing (DCAT Week 2025)

In an interview with the PharmTech Group ahead of DCAT Week 2025, Lidia Serina, PhD, head of Development Services at Simtra BioPharma Solutions, discusses the key challenges in aseptic processing for sterile injectables. Among the primary hurdles are the preservation of aseptic conditions throughout complex, multi-hour manufacturing processes while ensuring product stability, especially for sensitive molecules such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs); upholding cold chain logistics to maintain temperature-sensitive products during processing and shipping across global supply chains; and adherence to stringent safety standards for highly potent and cytotoxic molecules to protect both the workforce and the final drug product.

To address these challenges, Simtra is leveraging advanced automation, digitalization, and lean manufacturing practices. This includes enhanced digital monitoring, robust technology transfer protocols, and facility designs tailored to mitigate risks. The company is also expanding its capabilities in highly potent and cytotoxic manufacturing, as well as dedicated suites for ADCs.

"In parallel to the digitalization environment, we are also improving the way we do technology transfer … from when we receive a molecule and a process from a client [to when] we transfer this knowledge onto our aseptic filling lines … we need to make sure that we understand the critical process parameters [and] the quality attributes of the molecule, so we are actually able to keep the stability of this molecule along the manufacturing process [even to] the patient, right when we ship the product to the patient," Serina says.

DCAT Week is being held March 17–20, 2025 in New York City.

Lidia Serina, PhD, head of Development Services at Simtra BioPharma Solutions

Lidia Serina, PhD, is head of Development Services at Simtra BioPharma Solutions, leading a strategic area essential to the company’s mission. She partners with clients to develop high-quality injectable products and efficient manufacturing processes. With extensive experience in supply chain, vaccine R&D, quality and regulatory compliance, and both commercial and clinical manufacturing, Serina’s technical expertise spans a wide range of molecule types. Her leadership drives innovative solutions to the complex challenges of product development and manufacturing.

Lidia Serina, PhD, head of Development Services at Simtra BioPharma Solutions, discusses the challenges with maintaining aseptic integrity in sterile injectable pharmaceutical manufacturing.

DCAT Week 2025: A Discussion on Aseptic Processing for Sterile Injectable Manufacturing

India-based Shilpa Biologicals, a fully owned subsidiary of Shilpa Medicare Limited, announced on March 17, 2025 that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Switzerland-based mAbTree Biologics. The companies will co-develop and commercialize mAbTree’s novel biologic asset—a checkpoint inhibitor for immuno-oncological applications.

Under the agreement, Shilpa Biologicals will support development—including clinical studies—and long-term commercial supply with good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing. Meanwhile, Shilpa Group will provide mAbTree access to India and several global markets through its partner network (1).

The partners aim to develop a fully human monoclonal antibody (mAb) against a novel immune checkpoint protein. This protein enables T-cell activation and the generation of strong immune responses against tumors, similar to the more well-established blocking action of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1).While blocking PD-1/PD-L1 has demonstrated significant clinical successes, recent studies suggest that Shilpa Biologicals’ and mAbTree’s novel target carries a highly attractive therapeutic potential in various immuno-oncological states as both a monotherapy and combinatorial therapy. Their approach has the potential to convert cold tumors (those with poor immune cell infiltration) to hot (having good immune infiltration). Their approach can also suppress tumor metastasis and make refractory tumors susceptible to chemotherapy. This target is applicable in various cancers, including lung cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and hematologic malignancies, according to a company press release (1).

“We are delighted to enter this strategic collaboration with mAbTree Biologics as we share a common vision to bring innovative solutions to address unmet medical needs around the globe, especially in the field of oncology where Shilpa has had a long history of providing affordable innovative solutions,” said Madhav Bhutada, director, Shilpa Biologicals, in the press release (1).

Shilpa Biologics’ large R&D teams will provide full-service capabilities, from cell line development to GMP drug product manufacturing. Manufacturing activities and the provision of clinical supply will be conducted at the company’s biomanufacturing facility at Dharwad, Karnataka, in India.

“mAbTree is excited to continue our strategic partnership with Shilpa Biologicals and our aim is to enable greater access to medicines for more patients across the world, especially focusing on India and ROW [rest of world] markets where access has been limited,” said Raj Andhuvan, CEO, mAbTree in the release. “But what really impresses us about Shilpa is their commitment and scientific expertise. We look forward to rapidly advancing therapeutic options in the NBE [new biological entity] space and to addressing emerging health challenges.”

mAbTree’s pipeline (including this asset under the partnership with Shilpa Biologicals) includes two oncology assets that have completed preclinical studies and two assets currently in the R&D phase, one multiple sclerosis and the other in psoriasis. The rest of the company’s pipeline includes two undisclosed candidates in the investigational new drug application-enabling phase, one in the 

 proof-of-concept phase, and two in the lead optimization phase (2).

Shilpa Biologicals’ pipeline primarily includes biosimilars in various stages of development. It has an adalimumab biosimilar that has complete Phase III trials, an aflibercept biosimilar entering Phase III trials, and a FC fusion protein biosimilar and another mAb biosimilar in preclinical studies. The company also has a new biological entity, recombinant human albumin, that has started Phase III trials (3).

1. Shilpa Biologicals. Shilpa Biologicals Pvt Ltd Signs Strategic Development Partnership with mAbTree Biologics AG for a Novel Immuno-Oncology Asset. Press Release. March 17, 2025.
2. mAbTree Biologics. Pipeline. 

 (accessed March 17, 2025).
3. Shilpa Biologicals. Product Portfolio. 

The partnership aims to develop and commercialize a novel checkpoint inhibitor for immuno-oncology applications.

Shilpa Biologicals and mAbTree Biologics to Collaborate on Novel Immuno-Oncology Asset

Advances in manufacturing for new biotherapeutics and small-molecule pharmaceuticals are often based on current trends and/or changes or upgrades in equipment and processes. As biotherapeutic modalities grow more complex and as API dosing forms increasingly aim for high potency/low dose formats, equipment and process trends must keep pace. An exploration of current trends in equipment and processes can shed light on how these changes are supporting the way bioprocessing and pharmaceutical manufacturing is advancing going forward.

Starting early in the manufacturing lifecycle, the challenges associated with bioprocess development for a new biotherapeutic can fall into a few major categories. For one, in bioprocess development today, more than ever, there is a need for bioprocesses to be well aligned with the manufacturing supply chain and distribution strategy that is intended for that product right from the get-go, says Smriti Khera, PhD, global head of life sciences strategy and marketing at Rockwell Automation.

“If you look at the industry today, there are two parallel but opposing mega trends. One is that the manufacturing scales needed today are very different across various drug classes,” Khera says.

The bioprocess development for follow-on drug candidates, she emphasizes, “… willoptimize process to boost yield and productivity of the manufacturing process and that might require increased use of automation and evaluating new digital tools and technologies such as digital twins, PAT [process analytical technology] solutions, and beyond. An increased use of automation will produce efficiencies across the process, plant, and personnel needed to support the large scale manufacture of blockbuster drugs,” Khera says.

The more traditional challenges in bioprocess development are around determining and monitoring set points for critical process parameters (CPPs) and critical quality attributes (CQAs). “To do this, [bioprocess developers] need to perturb and evaluate the design space around a process and get a better understanding of the process overall, and that will help them ultimately put a better process and control strategy together,” Khera observes.

CPPs can be dramatically different at different scales, so maintaining conditions correctly, such as homogeneity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen, can be very different at different scales and must be monitored. “Determining the right conditions is [typically] a very labor-intensive process within bioprocess development,” notes Khera. “If you put that into context of today’s extremely diverse and massive therapeutic pipelines, it creates a resource constriction and massive demand for the process development experts’ time. That’s where a big opportunity exists today to leverage available data and science together through mechanistic and data-driven machine learning (ML) models and be able to run process simulations to help cut down on the manual experiments and expensive pilot runs needed.”

In terms of key equipment, there are a variety of critical equipment applications in biotherapeutic manufacturing, including single-use bioreactors, cell culture equipment, viral vector production systems, purification systems, fill/finish equipment, and real-time analytics gathering, says Anthony Christopher, commercial manager of bioprocessing at Kent Elastomer Products (KEP).

Christopher emphasizes that one of the most prominent recent developments in the biomanufacturing space is the increased adoption of single-use technologies (SUTs). “Advances in disposable components and equipment in a range of applications can help to reduce contamination risks, streamline cleaning requirements, and enable faster changeovers,” he states.

Christopher points to tubing, specifically, which presents one of the critical applications for single-use systems. However, alternatives to traditional silicone tubing offer potential quality and cost optimization benefits that Christopher says can make a true impact on biopharmaceutical manufacturing operations. “Bioprocessors have the opportunity to evaluate and source high-performing elastomeric tubing options that can help bring overall costs down without sacrificing quality or accuracy issues,” he states.

“Elsewhere,” Christopher adds, “we’re monitoring other evolutions, including continuous manufacturing systems, modular production units, integrated chromatography systems, advanced sensor and monitoring systems, and more.”

Meanwhile, automation has been playing a big role in advancing the equipment supporting bioprocessing. Christopher highlights digital twin technology, integrated control systems, automated sampling and analysis, and smart bioreactors as some of the automation developments being witnessed in the biomanufacturing space.

Automation is also being increasingly used at a commercial level. “From what our team has seen, most commercial biomanufacturing processes are partially automated, with automation implemented in upstream (e.g., bioreactors, feeding systems) and downstream (e.g., chromatography, filtration) steps,” says Christopher. He interjects that manual intervention is needed for setup, troubleshooting, and quality control, but that many facilities now use automated systems for data collection, process monitoring, and quality assurance. “But,” he qualifies, “full end-to-end automation is rare.”

On the small-molecule manufacturing front, the pharmaceutical industry is seeing a paradigm shift in processing equipment, driven by automation, sustainability, and regulatory compliance, says Caterina Funaro, Competence Center manager at IMA Active. Industry 4.0, for example, is accelerating the adoption of smart machinery, interconnected sensors, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven control systems, which are enabling real-time monitoring and data-driven decision-making.

“Predictive maintenance is a key application where equipment can self-monitor for wear and tear and alert operators before a breakdown occurs, minimizing downtime. Smart factories are becoming a reality, where data collected from machines optimize operations in real time,” Funaro states.

Meanwhile, sustainability is a key focus in the pharmaceutical industry as manufacturers face pressure to adopt more energy-efficient equipment that reduces their environmental footprint, notes Funaro. “This includes reducing water and energy consumption, lowering emissions, and improving waste management. Recyclable and reusable components in machinery, as well as the use of environmentally friendly materials, are becoming more widespread,” she observes.

When it comes to developing a manufacturing process for new biotherapeutics, process engineers and, in general, drug developers can benefit from implementing automated technologies into the manufacturing process.

“As an automation engineer,” says John Hatzis, global life sciences industry consultant at Rockwell Automation, “I’m always thinking about tech transfer from process development into GMP [good manufacturing practice] manufacturing, and it’s important to use automation technologies that can make that transition easy.”

“It’s all about leveraging industry standards out-of-the-box so as to avoid the need to reprogram the system or retrain personnel when your therapy gets approved,” Hatzis explains. “If you adopt an automation platform that applies standards [such as] ISA-101 and ISA-88 earlier in your manufacturing, you can seamlessly transition your operations into GMP without costly retraining of personnel or re-architecting your automated systems. Having the features built into the platform that can be easily configured to comply with the regulations for data integrity when you need them is really important.”

For example, Hatzis points out, a developer that builds up a repertoire of automation software for a piece of equipment that does not have “off-the-shelf” features may need to undergo significant reworking when the time comes for tech transfer into a clinical manufacturing, where data integrity becomes crucially important. “All of these things are going to be really important to make tech transfer easy and efficient [going] into clinical or GMP manufacturing,” he states.

Nicolas Pivet, vice-president and general manager, Manufacturing Capacity & Digital Solutions, Cytiva, shares the company’s experience in working with partners to develop bioprocesses for new biotherapeutics. “What we’ve been experiencing is that many of our customers actually use a platform approach for process development, which is great for speed but sometimes is not optimized for everything,” he explains, noting that it was this gap between speed and optimization that prompted Cytiva to develop a software simulation tool (GoSilico). “[This tool] helps to characterize and optimize large sets of chromatography resins, for instance, and saves a lot of time,” says Pivet.

Pivet also brings up the automation layer, which is a layer that allows equipment information to be viewed together. “Over the past seven years,” he explains, “we’ve been developing [an] automation offering (Figurate), which is a wide range of automation solution and libraries—from historian to control systems with Unicorn [control software] to SCADA [supervisory conrol and data acquisition] with Wonderware [automation platform] and to distributed control systems [e.g., DeltaV, PlantPax].”

Developing an automation library for cell culture and purification steps and improving control over CPPs such as pH, oxygen, and temperature, enables parallel processing, which can ease scale-up from lab to production, Pivet explains. Meanwhile, applying automation to downstream chromatography and filtration steps helps optimize product purification, improving purity and yield.

The improvement in process PAT has also been key in the implementation of automation in bioprocessing, Pivet notes. “Today, it’s really about outlier technologies that are used in the industry—[Raman] spectroscopy with chromatography and mass spectrometry [for example]—to monitor product quality, but those solutions have been quite cumbersome on the [manufacturing] floor, so we are working on new and breakthrough technologies [as well as] simulation[s] to avoid the burden of physical experiments,” Pivet says.

Pivet also notes that in-silico process development tools are a game changer. For example, he discusses the development of a bioreactor scaler using computational fluid dynamics capabilities, which helps with scaling up or scaling down between processes. “We’ve shown that we can save up to 50% of the time to run characterization optimization studies, and we can also achieve up to five points higher yield. Truly, I think that automation benefits the whole workflow, the operations—from seed production … to [cell] harvesting and downstream processing, even fill/finish,” he explains.

Furthermore, PAT enhances monitoring at “moments of truth,” where critical control points impact drug quality, safety, and efficacy, Pivet also explains. Integration with manufacturing execution systems and laboratory information management systems ensures full process visibility.

Automation technologies, including PAT, are important now and will be crucial to the industry moving forward. “I think, in the area of process analytical technology, the industry needs to move faster. [Regarding] PAT sensors [for example], there’s the emergence of improved sensing technology. And measuring CQAs, for instance, in line or online is really the holy grail of the biopharma industry right now, so the industry needs to get there in being able to measure CQAs in line and helping with real-time release, or right-time release, of the drug,” Pivet states.

“At the end, we need a software orchestration to take all those sensor data, manage them in real-time, and, using artificial intelligence [AI]/ML modeling, drive a real closed-loop optimization of the batch to end up with a batch that’s prescriptive, where you can really intervene on the batch before it’s too late and maximize the outcome of the batch. So, that’s where the industry is going,” Pivet concludes.

Meanwhile, Christopher observes that, from the research his company’s team has performed and from what is being seen among the customer base, “fully automated commercial-scale biologics manufacturing is not yet common, but the industry is rapidly moving in that direction.”

He points to advances in robotics, AI, and ML accelerating progress. “But, plenty of challenges stand in the way, including cost of implementation, regulatory compliance, and more.We have heard from experts who anticipate that fully automated, ‘lights-out’ biomanufacturing facilities could become a reality within the next five to 10 years,” Christopher adds.

In small-molecule pharmaceuticals manufacturing, automated production lines minimize downtime, increase throughput, and enable continuous manufacturing. “Automated material handling, packaging, and processing reduce the need for human intervention, leading to faster cycle times. In continuous manufacturing—especially in pharmaceuticals and chemicals—automation enables uninterrupted processes, reducing the need for manual batch handling and improving scalability,” says Funaro.

“As automation becomes more advanced,” Funaro adds, “the workforce will need new skills in data analysis, robotics operation, and AI systems management. Upskilling employees to work alongside advanced automation systems will be critical.”

®
Vol. 49, No. 2
March 2025
Pages: 10–13

When referring to this article, please cite it as Mirasol, F. Accelerating Adoption of Smart Tools to Advance Manufacturing. 

Industry 4.0 is driving adoption in the pharma industry for smart equipment 
and tools that will advance manufacturing.