White Paper: How Industry 4.0 supports therapeutic development against COVID-19
COVID-19 is one of the biggest challenges our society has ever had to face.
Currently, there is no vaccine or drug against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, until a safe and effective vaccine is available, there is hope for severely ill COVID-19 patients in the application of already available therapeutic approaches such as the convalescent plasma therapy.
In this therapeutic approach, blood is taken from convalescent patients who have already been infected with the virus and whose immune system has been proved to generate antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The blood plasma contains exactly those antibodies that are supposed to induce an effective immune response against the virus and thus specifically combat the dangerous virus in the patient.
A transfusion of the so-called "convalescent plasma" from recovered donors can help seriously ill COVID-19 patients to recover. Alternatively, COVID-19 patients could be infused with antibodies isolated from the plasma against the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a drug.
But what exactly does COVID-19 therapy has to do with Industry 4.0?
In order to be able to provide a quickly available, cost-effective and safe therapeutic approach for intensive care units, many important organizational challenges between several project participants and under time pressure must be overcome and made as efficient as possible during project planning and implementation. The secret lies in the optimal coordination of all project participants involved. Possible resource conflicts should be made predictable or prevented - and this with maximum efficiency, always with the aim of making therapy available to patients as quickly as possible.
Cellerata GmbH, a company specialized in project management in the context of cell and gene therapy, has tackled this challenge and teamed up with iFAKT GmbH as project partner and expert in production and resource planning.
As a software producer in the field of Industry 4.0, iFAKT GmbH is a specialist in the optimization of time-critical processes and resources and assists cellerata GmbH with its software solution Predictive ERP in the modeling, simulation, and analysis of manufacturing and production processes of COVID-19 therapies, such as plasma therapy.
The joint project shows how the combination of biotechnological processes, therapy applications and digital solutions from industry 4.0 can be used to operate a complete supply chain centrally and efficiently from production to the clinic.
Find out more about the project and how the software application Predictive ERP can support drug developers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and clinical centers in planning and controlling a safe, time-critical, and efficient clinical supply:
