By: David R. Somers, Senior Industry Analyst
Control of the Manufacturing Process Requires a Unified Approach
While the convergence of devices drugs, and/or biological products used in therapeutic and diagnostic applications has grown significantly, the process used to manufacture them have not kept pace. “Combination products are therapeutic and diagnostic products that combine drugs, devices, and/or biological products1.” As medical technology advances, combination products continue to blur the historical lines of separation between drugs, devices, and/or biological products.
Traditionally, Life-Science companies have fallen into two camps, those manufacturing pharmaceutical and biotech products using the “formulation approach” and those manufacturing devices using a “discrete approach.” That growth in combination products has created a challenge for companies manufacturing them.
From an operational standpoint, MES solutions have focused on addressing the needs of either process or discrete manufacturing approaches. As a result, manufacturers of combination and diagnostic products have had few options for MES technologies that enabled them to consolidate electronic batch history records (eBHR) and electronic device history records (eDHR) in support of a single manufacturing, quality and regulatory process.
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