Advanced Therapies Week 2022 | Achieving operational excellence in CGT through automation

Sharon Brownlow, PhD, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, London, UK, discusses the challenges in achieving operational excellence in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) field and strategies to overcome these challenges. Achieving operational excellence is necessary as the timeframe to release a product is very limited, but is challenging due to the highly complex process of manufacturing CGTs. Whilst automation will have a dramatic impact in improving operational excellence, many of the systems currently used in CGT are not tailored to early product development. Dr Brownlow additionally highlights how many companies are integrating processes together and developing more configurable systems, as well as ‘factory-in-a-box’ technologies which can manufacture multiple CGTs simultaneously in a fully automated fashion. This interview took place at Advanced Therapies Week 2022.