Working in the pharmaceutical industry – trained with virtual reality

What exactly is RESILIENCE?

Prof. Ivan Wall: RESILIENCE is the UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence. It is supported by the Office for Life Sciences, part of UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and it aims to strengthen the life sciences industry, in particular pharmaceutical manufacturing and innovations such as gene therapies. RESILIENCE was established to address a skills and workforce shortage in this sector. We provide training for the industry and deliberately build a talent pipeline so that up to 150,000 new roles can be filled in the United Kingdom over the next ten years. Our aim is to attract young people and equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to enter the sector.

You are quoted on the RESILIENCE website as saying: “We need to be creative and innovative about how we upskill current industry employees and how we train the emerging talent pipeline.” What does that mean in practical terms?

Wall: There are quite a few things changing in medicines manufacturing, particularly due to new modalities such as biologic medicines, and cell and gene therapies. One example is cell therapy products that are manufactured using a patient’s own cells. Manufacturing is fundamentally different from that of traditional pharmaceutical production, which is designed for very large volumes. We therefore need to build new capabilities around these emerging processes. However, if we wanted to train thousands of people to work with single-use plastic bioreactors that we use to make cell and gene therapies, this would be extremely costly and would have significant environmental impacts, as all of that plastic would need to be incinerated after use. That is why we wanted to look at how digital technologies such as virtual reality (VR) could be used to deliver hands-on training without people having to be physically present in a clean room. This is where creativity and innovation come in: we enable training via VR headsets – without the risks, without the high costs, without the major logistical and organisational effort, and without the environmental impact of traditional training approaches.

What experience have you gained with this approach?

Wall: At several of our centres – for example at Heriot-Watt University – we have trained people who are starting a job in a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility using VR on their very first day. They put on a VR headset and virtually practise the processes they will later carry out in the facility or laboratory. This significantly reduces potential risks, especially since mistakes in real manufacturing environments can be very costly. VR provides a safe, low-stress environment and builds both confidence and competence. When participants then move into their actual workplace, they are noticeably more relaxed and more confident. We conducted a case study in Scotland in which participants reported that, thanks to the VR training, they felt fully operational from day one.

RESILIENCE is also designed for university students – what has the feedback been like?

Wall: For example, a group of 50 students used VR to set up bioreactors and practise different process workflows. Bioreactors are used, among other things, in the manufacture of gene therapies. At the end, we asked the students for feedback. The result was very clear: all of them preferred the VR training and found it significantly more helpful than traditional teaching formats such as textbooks, PowerPoint presentations or videos. In addition, both their knowledge and practical skills were at a higher level than would have been expected after a lecture-based format alone.

Where is the RESILIENCE programme currently available?

Wall: RESILIENCE is currently active across the whole of the United Kingdom. We have five core partners: the University of Birmingham, University College London, Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Teesside University in the north-east of England, and the organisation Britest. In the first year alone, we trained almost 15,000 young people. This has enabled us to generate extensive data. We are currently analysing not only the impact of the training on participants’ competence, but also environmental and social aspects. These include cost savings and reductions in CO₂ emissions, as plastics that would have been used in conventional training no longer need to be incinerated.

Given innovations such as gene therapies, is training without VR still up to date and sufficient?

Wall: No, it is not. At present, the quality of training varies greatly and is often inconsistent. In fact, 80% of manufacturing errors are the result of operator error and inconsistent training is a factor behind this. VR can introduce a higher level of standardisation: the VR training is identical whether someone is trained in Birmingham or in Berlin. Our goal is for this approach to be used worldwide.

Who exactly is RESILIENCE designed for?

Wall: The whole talent pipeline. We have supported children of primary school age. They usually know what doctors or nurses do, but we also show them, for example, what vaccine manufacturers do. In secondary schools – with students aged 15 to 18 – we aim to provide hands-on experiences that give a realistic impression of potential careers. And at universities, we work with students and graduates to ease the transition into employment, so that they already understand the technologies, processes and requirements – and can even demonstrate this understanding using VR.

And you also provide training for pharmaceutical companies?

Wall: Yes, exactly. In addition, we have specific partnerships with several pharmaceutical companies in the United Kingdom. They use the VR training software developed by FourPlus Immersive, a company in which I am involved, and can customize the training protocols to their specific needs. Companies receive a type of app that allows them to create their own training environments using a non-code drag-and-drop system. Training protocols are then transferred remotely to the VR headsets. This creates a three-dimensional training environment in which employees can work as if they were in a GMP facility – while in reality they are sitting in a normal room.

How long did it take to develop this software?

Wall: Almost two years – and the development is by no means finished. We are continuously expanding the software with new interactions and features. For example, we are integrating AI-based chatbots that allow participants to interact during training, ask questions and receive immediate feedback. We also build custom features for companies that need it.