Unless you work in the industry, most people don’t give much thought to biopharmaceutical manufacturing. However, the world would be a much different place without the research, development, and products biopharmaceutical companies produce.
Remember the pandemic? Given today’s onslaught of constant news fighting for attention, it seems like our memories of events fade faster than they did in the past. COVID-19 changed our world forever, yet many people were so ready to move on that they’ve forgotten what it was like to experience it firsthand.
In those scary days of uncertainty, it was the scientists at biopharmaceutical companies who stood in the breach to produce the vaccinations that saved lives and brought back a sense of control. Their work continues to ensure that a proper response will be possible the next time a new virus or disease attempts to wreak havoc on humanity.
The work of the biopharmaceutical industry extends well beyond an emergency response to a public heath crisis. Day in and day out, the professionals in this industry work on a variety of ways to make life better for everyone, from developing new medicines and treatments to making sure the food supply is as healthy as it can be.
We see the benefits of their work in many ways every day. New weight loss drugs are enabling millions of people to fight obesity and chronic diseases, like diabetes. And the next time there’s an outbreak of a food-borne parasite causing explosive diarrhea, you can bet there’s a biopharmaceutical scientist somewhere working on a solution.
Given their wide-ranging and important work, it’s critical to encourage continued growth in the biopharmaceutical industry. According to a recent Pharma Manufacturing article, author Greg Slabodkin notes that “[t]he U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced plans to award $50 million in grant funding to Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) in several states meant to boost biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes which are essential to national security and competitiveness.”
Slabodkin points out that the “EDA is investing in regions of the U.S. it contends have the ‘talent and assets to become global leaders in the critical technologies of the future.’” For example, $16 million will go to “the Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Tech Hub (Virginia)…to ‘develop and scale advanced, AI-enabled domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing.’”
An even larger investment–$34 million—will go to “the Kansas City BioSecure Manufacturing Tech Hub (Kansas, Missouri)…to ‘modernize manufacturing processes, strengthen and retool domestic supply chains, and accelerate the translation of biologic discoveries into scalable, resilient, and agile U.S. production.’” The author also notes that $2.8 million in funds is earmarked “to train workers in AI and advanced biomanufacturing.”
This funding for training is essential, given the fact that demand for highly skilled workers in biopharmaceutical manufacturing greatly exceeds the current supply of such workers. Other areas are following suit. For example, “[w]ith EDA funding and a $6 million investment from Eli Lilly, the Applied Research Institute announced plans last year for a 20,000-square-foot Heartland BioWorks headquarters in Indianapolis…[that] will serve as a workforce training and innovation center.”
With skilled workers in high demand but difficult to find, biopharmaceutical manufacturers will need to work closely with local industry and educational institutions to ensure a steady stream of talent for their advanced manufacturing facilities.
When it comes to training the next generation of advanced manufacturing workers, educators and industry partners alike would do well to partner with experts in technical training, such as DAC Worldwide.
For example, biopharmaceutical manufacturers could benefit from DAC Worldwide’s Smart Process Plant Training System (603-SP), a fully functional, industrial-quality fluid process system that provides hands-on training in the measurement and control of five of the most common process variables: level, pressure, temperature, flow, and pH.
The Smart Process Plant Training System features a wide variety of common components and instruments to provide learners with a realistic training experience that will build skills that translate easily to the workplace. The Smart Process Plant also includes multiple experiments, which simulate both continuous and batch process control loops that are widely used in many process industries. The Smart Process Plant Training System is only one of DAC Worldwide’s many process control and instrumentation training systems. Visit DAC Worldwide online to learn more about its many other training systems, as well as advanced chemical engineering training systems from its partner, Pignat SAS!
