VR is cool - but can it attract young people into medicines manufacturing?

Handling charge

Advanced medicines manufacturing is suffering from an acute skills gap, and not enough young people are entering the sector. Could Virtual Reality (VR) technology help attract those young people by creating an engaging training environment that inspires as well as educates?

Medicines are evolving rapidly, and many new drugs under development contain high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients. As a result, they present serious handling challenges and expensive specialised equipment is needed to protect employees and their environment from exposure.

In addition, ‘biologics’ (which includes vaccines, blood components, somatic cells and tissues) may offer the most effective means to treat a variety of currently untreatable conditions. But they tend to be heat sensitive and susceptible to contamination, so the initial manufacturing steps are especially sensitive.

On top of that, advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), based on genes, cells or tissues, promise groundbreaking opportunities for the treatment of diseases. But here too, there are significant manufacturing challenges.

Finally, we are seeing some ground-breaking, personalised therapies. But they are produced in multiple small batches, which means production is costly, difficult to reproduce at scale, and requires highly skilled operators.

The UK is already at the forefront of the science behind these medicines but this needs to be matched in manufacturing capability.

The recently published Life sciences competitiveness indicators 2024 noted that pharmaceutical manufacturing’s gross value added (GVA) was £13.7 billion in 2021.

Meanwhile, the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP), which represents medicines manufacturers in the UK, noted in 2023 that medicines manufacturing generates the majority of life sciences jobs.

The challenges are significant, ranging from encouraging young people to take STEM subjects at school through to developing training programmes that teach the necessary skills for working in the sector.

This latter issue is made more challenging by the very nature of the work; gaining access to laboratories or advanced manufacturing facilities for training is inevitably disruptive and expensive – people must travel there, materials are consumed, training staff must be on-hand, working days are interrupted.

Is there a way to square the circle?

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies hold out the promise of overcoming all these limitations, and have the added benefit that they are, simply, cool.

In this article we will explore how VR is being used to excite, engage, and enable young people to work in advanced medicines manufacturing, and we will hear from some of those young people who have experienced the technology as part of a major Government programme designed specifically to address the sector’s skills gap.  

Virtual Money

In simple terms, VR is a computer-generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be real, making the user feel immersed in that environment. The key technology is the VR headset, which covers the eyes and ears and effectively blanks out the real world.

Critically, the computer-generated environment can be an exact replica of a real-world environment.

AR is different in that the environment remains the real world, but with computer-generated objects and images added.

Mixed reality is a combination of VR and AR that makes it possible to see virtual objects in the real world and interact with them.

The VR/AR market is predicted to grow dramatically over the next few years, from $15 billion in 2024 to $38 billion by 2029, according to market specialists Markets and Markets. This is a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of almost 20%. Some analysts are even more bullish, and it’s easy to see why.

A key driver of that growth is the ability to simulate real world environments in which it would otherwise be impractical, disruptive, or expensive to experience.

Medicines manufacturing is a prime example of such an environment.

What did VR ever do for us?

The environments in which advanced medicines must be manufactured mean it should not be a surprise that VR/AR is a key enabling technology for training.

With VR it is possible to learn a wide range of vital practices, without being in a real facility. Gowning and cleaning are two examples of simple, yet vitally important activities.

Much of the core training is about orientation, building confidence, familiarity, and process knowledge, so VR is a highly efficient and cost-effective delivery method.

Training time is on-demand, unlimited, and can be repeated at will. Perhaps obviously, there’s no need to travel to an actual manufacturing site – and of course no expensive consumables need to be used.

Critically, training can be standardised across geographies and sites, and there’s no limit on class sizes.

From cleanrooms to complex manufacturing tools, a VR-based tour of a real-world facility allows you to explore every corner with unprecedented detail and precision.

The VR environment used in the Resilience training programme is based on one of the most advanced facilities in the country, the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult’s manufacturing centre in Stevenage.

User experiences

Children aged 14 and 15 from Grays Convent School in Essex took part in a Resilience STEM outreach programme at University College London (one of the core Resilience facilities); here’s what two of them said:

• I enjoyed how we used the VR headsets and how we learned about how medicines are made.

• At UCL we studied medicines through VR and went through the stages thoroughly. This allowed me to have fun while learning about  medicines, viruses and more.

The evidence from many young people who have used it is that VR is a highly engaging technology that enhances learning.

Conclusions

VR/AR technology will continue to evolve, to become a key enabler for training in industry and manufacturing.

The leading payers are developing wireless HD headsets, using ever more powerful processors. They will undoubtedly soon integrate AI, and 5G will allow more devices and larger communities to be connected. 

For advanced medicines manufacturing, this means even better training and an even more exciting and engaging career path for young people.

In short, VR/AR technology will help to create a generation of workers equipped with the necessary skills for working in advanced medicines manufacturing.

About the Author:

Ivan Wall is a multi-disciplinary scientist and entrepreneur who works at the interface of life science and engineering. Following a PhD in cell and molecular biology at Cardiff University and postdoctoral work at UCL in regenerative medicine and developmental neurobiology, he was an academic at UCL’s Department of Biochemical Engineering from 2009-2017 focused on stem cell bioprocessing, cell line engineering and tissue engineering.

In 2018 Ivan moved to Aston University as Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing where he set up a Level 7 MRes Research Scientist apprenticeship, and completed his own MBA (level 7 senior leaders apprenticeship). He also established one of three National Training Centres under the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s Advanced Therapies Skills and Training Network (ATSTN) programme.

In 2021 Ivan co-founded Quest Meat, and in 2022 moved to the University of Birmingham as Professor of Regenerative Medicine.

RESILIENCE is the major focus in his current academic role. As Co-Director he brings together leading experts in industry skills training and leads the adoption of creative new approaches to meet rapidly evolving sector skills needs.

About Resilience

Resilience is the UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence; It is funded by the Office for Life Sciences, part of the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, and managed through Innovate UK. It is a £4.3 million, two-year programme.

Professor Ivan Wall of the University of Birmingham and Professor Gary Lye of UCL are co-directors.

https://www.resilience-skills.com/