Recently, the 2019 Siemens Pharmaceutical Industry Summit was successfully held in Chengdu. During the conference, the world's leading biopharmaceutical industry supplier Sartorius Stedim Biotech and Siemens announced the global strategic cooperation in automation and modularization.

In June last year, Siemens and Sartorius reached a long-term cooperation consensus in the field of automation. According to the agreement between the two parties, Sartorius will prefer Siemens automation and digital related technologies and products, including PCS 7-1500, TIA Portal and Simatic WinCC OA (Open Achitecture).The various products and bioprocess solutions offered by Sartorius for its customers will use Siemens hardware and software, which will be used in the development and production of biopharmaceutical products such as vaccines or monoclonal antibodies. 

In the past, Sartorius has applied Siemens process control automation solutions to large bioreactors and filtration systems. To further standardize the product portfolio, Sartorius decided to introduce a new, modular automation system. Under the agreement, the scope of cooperation between the two parties will be further extended to more Sartorius product lines, including the disposable bioreactor BIOSTAT? STR series, various filtration systems and FlexAct? systems. The FlexAct? system is a flexible module for controlling many different process steps in biopharmaceutical production. These products will be equipped with Siemens automation solutions in the coming months, seamlessly integrating with process control systems such as Siemens Simatic PCS 7, Simatic Batch.

Floris De Smet, head of Technical Support for Sartorius Biotechnology China, said: “By introducing new automation platforms and further product standardization, our customers can easily integrate their systems into higher-end automation solutions, such as SCADA, MES or ERP. It not only enhances compliance, but also reduces risk and optimizes resources.At the same time, we can help them more easily achieve process scales from lab scale to commercial scale. Floris added: "Siemens is one of the leading partners in the automation industry and our ideal partner. Through the cooperation between the two parties, users in the bio-pharmaceutical industry will benefit a lot, they will get higher efficiency, better drug quality and greater flexibility, and accelerate the time-to-market of drugs. ”

Bart Moors, vice president of market development and general manager of the pharmaceutical industry management department of Siemens AG, said: "Siemens is the world leader in automation and digitization in the field of biotechnology. Today, biotechnology is rapidly developing and how to help biopharmaceutical enterprises to quickly complete the construction of production lines and get medicines to market as soon as possible becomes the key to winning the future.Siemens and Sartorius signed a global strategic cooperation agreement to provide modular production solutions for biopharmaceutical users, enabling new lines to be built faster and more flexible in terms of compliance. China is becoming a hotspot for biopharmaceuticals worldwide. I believe that the global strategic cooperation of Sartorius-Siemens will help China's biotechnology companies to develop to the next level. ” 

During the conference, Dr. Burkchard Joksch, head of Bioprocess Automation Systems Management at the Sartorius Group, delivered a keynote speech on “Modularity: Focus on One-Time Biotechnology”, demonstrating  Sartorius modular one-off process for the biopharmaceutical sector. Many conveniences come to achieve truly flexible production. The close integration of Sartorius' disposable bioprocess integrity solutions with Siemens' innovative automation products and systems will help biopharmaceutical companies achieve modular, automated production and power for biopharmaceutical development.