There is a lot of talk about personalized medicine in healthcare. This approach separates people into multiple groups to tailor medical treatment to individuals based on how they are predicted to respond to treatment based on several factors.

The term “personalized medicine” was first introduced to the public in 1999 in a Wall Street Journal article that introduced the concept of using a person’s genetic profile to create a targeted healthcare treatment plan.

After the complete sequencing of the human genome was accomplished in 2003, this idea became a reality and is currently at the forefront of healthcare.

How Pharma is Responding to Personalized Medicine
The pharmaceutical industry has been keeping up with personalized medicine in an effort to provide personalized pharmaceutical care.

A future pharma trend to be on the lookout for is targeting therapies for smaller subsets of patients based on specific factors, such as genetic lesions, microbiome, and protein expressions.

These personalized batches will be developed on a “made-to-order” basis, which means pharma manufacturers will need to be agile with more flexible production schedules. In addition, as a result of the shift to making smaller, made-to-order batches based on personalized factors, many pharma manufacturers will turn to contract manufacturing. This will allow them to scale up or down much faster without wasting money or resources.

In addition, pharma manufacturers will also likely start using smaller facilities that specialize in these types of smaller, personalized orders. This will reduce costs while improving quality and productivity since these facilities will be well equipped to manage smaller batches of pharmaceuticals.

Examples of Flexible Pharmaceutical Operations
We’re already seeing some pharma manufacturers adapting to a more flexible process. Here are some examples of how.

Self-medication devices
While they are traditionally used to treat diabetes or for hormone therapies, some self-injectable medicines are now being used to treat diseases like hepatitis C and asthma.

Therefore, these devices are being replaced by insulin pens and auto-injectors. The design of auto-injectors varies depending on the use case. This requires drug manufacturers to be flexible so they can quickly provide changeovers as needed for different types of auto-injectors.

Flexible production lines
To improve flexibility in pharma manufacturing, many facilities are improving the flexibility of their production lines. For example, some drugs require the active pharmaceutical ingredient to be mixed with a solvent, which is then removed via a separation column.

Because several drugs require this step, facilities can adapt the separation column to work on multiple production lines (provided the conditions are similar enough to make this feasible).

Modular facilities
Pfizer was able to ramp up production of the COVID-19 vaccine in part because of its modular facility format. Through the use of modular “pods,” the company can prefabricate facilities, then move them anywhere in the world.

These modular facilities are designed to be torn down and rebuilt elsewhere, making it more feasible to get pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities to the parts of the world that need them the most at any given time.

Bottom Line
The pharmaceutical industry is responding to the rapid evolution of personalized medicine by taking a flexible approach to manufacturing. This will ensure that more people can access the healthcare they need based on their unique genetic factors.

References
Jamróz, W., Szafraniec, J., Kurek, M., & Jachowicz, R. (2018, July 11). 3D printing in pharmaceutical and medical applications – recent achievements and challenges. Pharmaceutical research. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6061505/.

Kennedy, M. J. (2018, September 25). Personalized medicines – are pharmacists ready for the challenge? Integrated pharmacy research & practice. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166757/.

Portable. Continuous. Miniature. Modular. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.pfizer.com/sites/default/files/investors/financial_reports/annual_reports/2019/our-bold-moves/deliver-first-in-class-science/portable-continuous-miniature-modular/index.html.

Walker, G. (2019, July 3). Bringing flexibility to pharmaceutical manufacturing. EPM Magazine. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.epmmagazine.com/pharmaceutical-industry-insights/bringing-flexibility-to-pharmaceutical-manufacturing/.