How robotics can support the pharma industry

Some people consider robotics and automatization as a threat to jobs. The pharma industry has not been quite as quick to embrace robotics as other industries, but with the advent of more advanced and less expensive technology, robotics is becoming an important part of supporting pharma companies to reduce their costs and make their processes more efficient, particularly in the drug discovery process. Whilst it is not yet a key part of the dug discovery and development process, US genome research equipment manufacturer SciGene has created a robot with the ability to prepare DNA samples by putting 40,000 dots of DNA onto a single microscopic slide.
Peter Hogg of ProClinical said: “Robots are an ideal choice for menial, repetitive jobs such as moving fluids and test tubes in drug discovery because they are easy to automate and provide a high level of accuracy and consistency. Technology will actually create more jobs than it replaces by giving us freedom to do new work – erasing labour-intensive tasks that were once essential. What is saved on labour rebounds to increased capital availability for new ideas. This has proved to be true historically across all industries with other advancements in technology (for example, the car and the Internet) which have made some jobs redundant but ultimately created entirely new ways to earn a living.”
Jonathan Wilkins of EU Automation, said: “The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly making use of robotics to automate specific processes in drug development, including drug screening, anti-counterfeiting and manufacturing tasks. Today, processes such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and high-performance liquid.