In the land of Eli Whitney, ‘This has shaken our world’
In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, Connecticut manufacturers and life sciences companies scrambled to cobble together needed items on the fly, from face shields to ventilators to moon-shot efforts to find therapies for those afflicted.
Necessity became the mother of invention in the land of Eli Whitney, whose early 19th century principles of interchangeable parts set up the industrial revolution and influenced Connecticut’s culture of new ideas and craftsmanship.
Innovators with Ridgefield’s Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals (BI) and the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) in East Hartford shared their early take on any lessons learned that might germinate new seeds of inspiration for the next moment of national need.
Before the pandemic hit, would you have predicted industries could have pivoted so quickly to emergency production of complex medical devices and therapies?
Dr. Cyrille Kuhn, head of Research Beyond Borders, BI: No, I think we were very comfortable in our ways of working, our processes and the way we do research and development. This has really shaken our world — we all have a sense of urgency. The patients are at the center of what we do . ... Nobody can ignore what this pandemic has done for our industry.
Ron Angelo, CEO, CCAT: It’s a lot harder than it looks. When certain [people] get up there and say, ‘you can’t make a mask?’ — there’s a lot that goes into that mask. It’s a lot of automation, very specialized equipment, and the hardest thing for everybody is the materials . ... Many challenges had to be navigated — materials, logistics, as well as the tooling up to be able to respond.
What did we learn that will help us for “the next one?”
Kuhn, BI: We have revisited all of our processes, streamlined them, simplified them . ... It has caused regulatory organizations to rethink their processes as well. We have had a very good discussion going between us in the pharma industry and the [regulators] to getting more efficient, while keeping in mind whatever we do has to ... be safe.”
Tom Maloney, chief technology officer, CCAT: The expressed need has changed maybe every week or so. First it was, ‘let’s all get face shields going.’ Then it was, ‘who can make masks?’ Then it was, ‘what about ventilators?’ Next time in the future, maybe we would as a nation say more quickly, ‘Here’s what we are going to need — A, B, C, D — and let’s make it happen.’
What do we need to be able to do better next time?
Kuhn, BI: We are talking about extremely large numbers of patients that need to be treated in a very short period of time. So I am all about manufacturing, whether vaccines that will need factories and capabilities to manufacture the doses that will be needed, or whether we are talking treatments ... The food chain has to be there. But it has to be there before the problem arises.
Angelo, CCAT: There’s some great technologies out there and they are going to continue to advance, whether it’s rapid prototyping or rapid production. But if you had a group of manufacturers in a room and you said raise your hand if any of you are actually using additive manufacturing or additive technologies — you’d be lucky to get two or three out of 10. ... It starts with companies taking that first step.