Dassault Systèmes Partners with Sanofi

Dassault Systèmes and Sanofi announce their partnership to optimize “EVolutive Facility” production at Sanofi’s future modular manufacturing facilities in France and Singapore. The partnership, which expands their long-standing collaboration in life sciences and healthcare, will leverage virtual twin experiences to enable agile and flexible operations that advance Sanofi’s ambition to secure its product portfolio, according to the companies.

Sanofi will use Dassault Systèmes’ “Made to Cure for BioPharma” industry solution experience based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design, implement, qualify and operate modular production lines at the two “EVolutive Facilities.” These will rely on single-use technology and mobile equipment to manufacture up to four products simultaneously and sustainably by selecting the most advanced technologies to reduce their energy consumption.

The platform provides a virtual environment for collaborative innovation and end-to-end data management across the life cycle. Sanofi can experience the manufacturing systems under development and their operation virtually and optimize scale up and industrialization processes before deploying them.

“We want to improve people’s lives by giving them faster access to vaccines and treatments while minimizing the environmental impacts of our activities,” says Ana Alves, EVolutive Facility global project head and site head of Neuville sur Saone, Sanofi. “Dassault Systèmes delivers the technology we need to accelerate the introduction of new products in the facility by supporting the collaborative works of our teams and by strengthening the standardization of designs and models.

"It will also bring capabilities to reach our objective to produce several products in the EVF in an optimized schedule, thanks to the digital twin," Alves adds. "Then, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will help us to address the complexity of the product lifecycle management in a highly regulated environment and for the benefit of our patients.”

Pharmaceutical manufacturers must qualify facilities, equipment and processes before production to ensure safety and quality. Virtual twins enable manufacturers to standardize modules, reduce this timeframe, and boost their ability to quickly and massively produce crucial therapies.

With a virtual twin, Sanofi can visualize and simulate the recipe, equipment and consumables that a particular process requires, as well as the flow and activity of the modules and operators in the “ballroom”—a flexible and adaptable area that enables manufacturers to quickly switch between processes. Sanofi can add, remove and replace functional elements and process steps as needed in a seamless way, and reconfigure the production lines for a fast changeover from one product to another one. It can also accelerate the main activities of the life cycle of new modules, processes and facilities more quickly and catalog them into its product life cycle management for reuse and faster product changeover, according to Sanofi.

“The pandemic made it clear: BioPharmas must be able to maximize efficiency and quickly provide high-quality, innovative therapeutics to patients worldwide,” says Claire Biot, vice president, Life Sciences & Healthcare Industry, Dassault Systèmes. “Sanofi is responding to this challenge with next generation modular manufacturing that can transform the speed at which products reach patients. Thanks to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Sanofi will implement new products right the first time, with faster production ramp-ups and concurrent process production for built-in flexibility. Ergonomics on the shop floor can be simulated and improved.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.