Six key take aways from Parenteral Drug Association’s (PDA) recent workshop have been summarized by the author. The association intends to host a number of workshops to educate and help the industry implement the revision of the new Annex 1: ‘Manufacture of Sterile Products’.

Sea Vision and the Marchesini Group are launching a brand-new solution in the market for primary pack serialization and aggregation, comprising a complete range of technologies to print, inspect and pack serialized blisters and perform aggregation with cartons, all integrated in a 4.0 environment.

The introduction of robotics into manufacturing plants benefits both products and staff, delivering greater operational flexibility, safety, quality and process efficiency compared to what traditional mechanical solutions allow. However, the price to achieve this is a reduction in production rates.

The 4th ‘China International Import Expo (CIIE)’ showed where the chemical industry in China is heading. At the beginning of November, while climate negotiations were taking place in Glasgow, keywords such as ‘low carbon,’ ‘green,’ or ‘circular economy’ also dominated the presentations of Chinese and international chemical companies at the Expo in Shanghai.

Any review of China’s chemical industry in 2021 is dominated by the two big issues the industry had to wrestle with: climate neutrality and Corona. These are the same issues that will dominate the year 2022. The industry as a whole in the People’s Republic is facing enormous challenges and changes — while at the same time there are great growth opportunities for certain sectors. However, the ongoing global epidemic, including in China, continues to create uncertainty.

Extremely long life cycles are typical for many plants in the process industry. With the new version 3.1 of Simatic PCS neo, Siemens has completely rethought the plant life cycles in the process industry and, in addition to a variety of new functions, the completely web-based process control system shows how the challenges of long life cycles will be mastered in the future. Users of all process technology sectors already benefit from it today.

In the healthcare industry, 3D bioprinting is being used to develop human tissues for the purpose of research and development as well as regenerative medicine but now there is also a possibility that fully functional artificial organs can be printed, a move which if proved successful can revolutionize the industry like never before.

Digitalization is one of the biggest industry trends of the 21st century. However, the transformation presents companies with major challenges. Can a professional coaching method, supported by a dedicated digital framework, help firms and employees alike achieve sustainable change for the long term?

The time-to-market has always been a concern for the pharmaceutical industry. But the development of a vaccine against covid-19 in just a few months and making it available within a year has left one speechless: How was/is that possible? What has the industry learned from this for the future? What can be adapted and what cannot? Insights from a web conference organized and hosted by PROCESS.

E-crackers are the next big thing within the chemical process industry as it has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 90 %. The transition of this core industrial process has already begun with leading petrochemical companies looking to establish pilot e-cracker plants across Europe. PROCESS Worldwide revisits its ‘Progress on E-Cracking’ article by highlighting the top 3 e-cracker projects in the news this year.