First virtual pharma software conference

Con­next cel­e­brat­ed a fit­ting start as a vir­tu­al soft­ware con­fer­ence for the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try with almost 900 reg­is­tered par­tic­i­pants from 160 dif­fer­ent phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and biotech com­pa­nies from 45 coun­tries world­wide. From a stand­ing start, the for­mat thus estab­lished itself as the largest and most inter­na­tion­al net­work­ing event for soft­ware experts from the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try to date.
Con­next brings togeth­er phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, biotech and cell & gene ther­a­py com­pa­nies that use Werum PAS‑X MES or are inter­est­ed in using Man­u­fac­tur­ing IT and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Intel­li­gence to dig­i­tal­ize their pro­duc­tion. The four-day online event evolved from the annu­al PAS‑X User Group Meet­ing (UGM) and the par­al­lel PFU meet­ing (PAS‑X for Us) and is orga­nized by the soft­ware experts of Kör­ber’s Phar­ma Busi­ness Area. For the first time, this PAS‑X Com­mu­ni­ty Event took place as a vir­tu­al online event.

“Under the mot­to ‘Ele­vat­ing your busi­ness. Togeth­er.’ we were able to put togeth­er an exten­sive pro­gram with best-prac­tice user pre­sen­ta­tions, work­shops, prod­uct demon­stra­tions, pan­el dis­cus­sions and numer­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties for online net­work­ing. We were thus able to show our numer­ous cus­tomers and inter­est­ed par­ties from all over the world in a clear and inter­ac­tive way how they can use our PAS‑X soft­ware prod­ucts and ser­vices to reduce time, effort, and risks in their phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal production.”
— Jens Woehlbier, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer (CEO) Soft­ware in Kör­ber’s Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals Busi­ness Area.

First virtual software conference for the pharmaceutical industry with record attendance

High­lights of the vir­tu­al event includ­ed dis­cus­sion pan­els on “COVID-19 and the Impor­tance of MES” and “MES in the Cloud” with indus­try trail­blaz­ers such as Ama­zon Web Ser­vices, AstraZeneca, Bay­er, John­son & John­son, Lyell Immunophar­ma, Novar­tis and Take­da. Lead­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and biotech com­pa­nies such as Bay­er, Boehringer Ingel­heim, Regen­eron and Steri­Pack pre­sent­ed their cur­rent PAS‑X MES imple­men­ta­tion projects and explained how their pro­duc­tion ben­e­fits from the Kör­ber MES.
In almost 20 vir­tu­al work­shops, the par­tic­i­pants were able to work on var­i­ous con­crete prob­lems from phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal pro­duc­tion in small vir­tu­al groups and dis­cuss chal­lenges of their dai­ly work togeth­er. Impor­tant top­ics includ­ed the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, elec­tron­ic GMP archives, dig­i­ti­za­tion in cell and gene ther­a­py, dig­i­tal twins in process char­ac­ter­i­za­tion, data pro­vi­sion and analy­sis, and store floor integration.
“The great inter­est in this phar­ma event, reflect­ed in the very high num­ber of reg­is­tra­tions from drug man­u­fac­tur­ers around the world, exceed­ed our expec­ta­tions!”, Jörn Gossé, CEO of Kör­ber’s Phar­ma Busi­ness Area, also expressed his sat­is­fac­tion. “Through the inter­ac­tive vir­tu­al for­mat of Con­next, we were able to live up to our own claim of mak­ing a dif­fer­ence for par­tic­i­pants in their dai­ly work.”