New classes of biological medicines, new modalities and new industry pressures such as C&G therapy, small-scale, low-cost manufacturing plants, and continuous processing require a straight shift in biomanufacturing processes. If Pharma MES is located at the core of the Factory of the Future the industry needs to digitize and automate processes further and rely on the use of new technologies. Whereas i.e., C&G therapy is pushing digitalization and leads to new production IT strategies, current MES solutions are not as flexible, agile, and open as they need to be. So far, the pharmaceutical industry has not agreed on a common position but within the industry the movement from monolithic solutions to MES platform is visible.In this session, we will address the following questions:

• What are the biggest challenges in reducing costs and increasing manufacturing quality in the pharma and biomanufacturing industry?
• What problems and scenarios are not solved by current MES solutions? Why do they even need to change? How big is the gap between current MES solutions and the biomanufacturing industry?
• Will we see a continuation in the movement from monolithic MES solutions to platforms? What other changes do you see coming?
• How does the MES of the Future enable manufacturing´s digital transformation? Is the MES of the future a trustworthy decision automation?
• If you could dream up what the perfect MES solution does, looks like, and feels like, what would it be?