The pharmaceuticals industry — with its major investments in research, reliance on complex chemistry, and sophisticated understanding of human biology — is generally regarded as a technologically advanced sector. When it comes to manufacturing, however, pharma is stuck in the past. The current methods of making drugs, which are labor intensive and inefficient, are based on batch processes that have been in place in this sector since the mid-20th century. Worse still, the traditional manufacturing techniques make pharmaceuticals prone to contamination.
