Achieving Agility When Facing Uncertainty — Scaling Aseptic Pharmaceutical Production

By Samuel Chia, Jay Shukla, and Dr. Bryan Braxton, Pharmaceutics International

This past year has taught us that agile organizations will not only survive, but prosper, when faced with unexpected challenges. Case in point is the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines. A long-standing clarion-call across the drug development community has been to speed-up the drug development process. Until recently, the industry had not made much progress, but the speed with which the COVID vaccine was approved is giving us hope.

The question many of us are now asking is: can we do it the next time something like this happens? What capabilities and organizational features must we possess to have the same level of success? In one word, it's agility! Agility is not typically associated with the pharmaceutical industry, but at Pii we spend a good deal of time studying it, understanding what makes organizations agile, and applying those lessons to our own operations.

What is Agility and Why is it Important?