Companies Reveal Their Next Moves in Manufacturing

A lab technician in protective gear operates a tablet displaying a green checkmark in a high-tech pharmaceutical laboratory. | Image Credit: © greenbutterfly - stock.adobe.com

Pharmaceutical Technology® Group interfaced with nearly a dozen companies at the annual INTERPHEX conference in New York City on April 1 and 2, 2025, and while one of the overarching topics may have been the tariff policies of United States President Donald Trump’s administration—in which there were new developments during the event—many of the interviewees over those two days were eager to share their businesses’ latest innovations in manufacturing and how those might fit into the industry at large.

Most people interviewed did have at least one eye on what the Trump administration’s decisions might mean in terms of outsourcing, as best expressed by David Loula, global product director at ITT Engineered Valves.

“If you are procuring components [from] or some of your supply chain is based, for example, in China, you’ve seen a recent increase in tariffs on components coming out of China that has a direct impact on our costs, and it’s something that we have to decide as to whether we’re going to pass those costs along to our customer base, or we’re going to eat those costs ourselves,” Loula said. “You don’t always know if the steel components that you’re buying have metals that were sourced in one of the target countries. So that one’s a little trickier to figure out, but we’re working closely with our supply chain to identify which of those items might have direct impact on our cost position.”

Beyond those concerns, however, three main manufacturing themes emerged: safety, sustainability, and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

‘Breaking up the octopus’

Joe Bobacher, regional sales manager for OPW Engineered Systems in Hamilton, Ohio, spoke to PharmTech Group about preventing spills in the manufacturing process, which all companies would like to ideally avoid in order to not lose product, but also to prevent anything corrosive from leaking into the environment.

“As safety evolves throughout manufacturing process facilities where you have fluid transfer, spill prevention is very important,” Bobacher said (2). “So, we find that companies are looking to reduce the amount of spills at a site because a lot of facilities and processes have that fluid transfer and the products that we supply.”

One category that has increased in popularity in recent years is single-use equipment, technologies, or entire systems, a trend noted by Todd Andrews, global director of Applications and Business Development for the Biopharma business at CPC.

When it comes to safety, Andrews said single use used to be a “wild wild West” where everyone wanted a customized solution. This was a complex problem, he said, and stressed the supply chain because manufacturers were often stuck making different assemblies for the different demands of their various customers. But these suppliers have since adapted.

“What we’re seeing now is a lot of forward-thinking end users trying to break up—we call it ‘break up the octopus’,” Andrews said. “Instead of this giant tubing assembly, how do you break it up into the common subassemblies? And you almost can treat it like a Lego, where you may have a ‘T’ or a cross and you can basically customize at the point of use, instead of customizing with the OEM [original equipment manufacturer]. And if you’re an OEM supplying this, this adds a lot more efficiency, because now, instead of making lower volumes of multiple part numbers, you can make higher volumes of lower part numbers.”

Read the full article in the Trends in Manufacturing eBook.

About the author

Patrick Lavery is an editor for Pharmaceutical Technology® and BioPharm International®.

Article details

Pharmaceutical Technology®/Pharmaceutical Technology® Europe/BioPharm International®
Trends in Manufacturing eBook
May 2025
Pages: 38–44

Citation

When referring to this article, please cite it as Lavery, P. Companies Reveal Their Next Moves in Manufacturing. Pharmaceutical Technology®/Pharmaceutical Technology® Europe/BioPharm International®, Trends in Manufacturing eBook, May 2025.