Danish Pharma and Biopharma Manufacturing taking important steps to becoming more digital and sustainable
Danish Pharma and Biopharma Manufacturing taking important steps to becoming more digital and sustainable

Insight

Danish Pharma and Biopharma Manufacturing taking important steps to becoming more digital and sustainable

Insight

Danish Pharma and Biopharma Manufacturing taking important steps to becoming more digital and sustainable

New report by FORCE Technology demonstrates that the Danish Life Science Industry, compared to 2020, has accelerated its efforts to transform production to more sustainable and digitised practices and methods.

When

Life Science is a key industry in Denmark, accounting for around 20% of the Danish export. The industry is known to be highly advanced, highly efficient, and environmentally conscious – A report published by the technological advisory company FORCE Technology confirms this as the Life Science industry has indeed increased its efforts in sustainability and digital manufacturing.

The report in numbers:

The report shows that 43% of the respondents have come a long way securing more sustainable production processes. Comparing to the report’s earlier findings in 2020 this is a 13% increase. The same trend appears in relation to sustainable product development. An 11% increase shows that 37% of the Danish companies have already started initiatives or highly advanced the sustainability within their product development.

  • 85% of the respondents values digital transformation as very important or important. 
  • 78% of the respondents values the sustainable transformation as very important or important.
  • 61% of the companies are actively working on reducing their use of resources in production. 
  • 55% of the company’s sustainability process is driven by a strategic priority from the management.

Several ways to lower footprint

Companies are starting to realise that both investors and customers expect a higher attention to environmental concerns. Compared to a similar survey in 2020 the companies’ focus were much more on the individual product’s footprint. In fact, 8 out of 10 have introduced initiatives such as life cycle assessments, tack-back solutions, looking for alternative materials and reducing packaging.

"Companies are starting to realise that both investors and customers expect a higher attention to environmental concerns. Compared to a similar survey in 2020 the companies’ focus were much more on the individual product’s footprint. In fact, 8 out of 10 have introduced initiatives such as life cycle assessments, tack-back solutions, implementation of alternative materials and reducing packaging."

Björn Snorri Gudmundsson Bøg

Special Advisor – Life Science Manufacturing, Invest in Denmark

Björn Snorri Gudmundsson Bøg, Special Advisor in Invest in Denmark

Considering that larger manufacturers and companies soon must implement ESG reporting in their yearly financial reports the main priority by most companies is to implement initiatives to lower consumption of primary resources such as energy, heat and water. But a high number of companies are striving further to lower CO2 and use of resources.

The three actions that stand out are

  1. the use of renewable energy,
  2. reuse of excess heat from production
  3. and reducing waste from production.

Case 

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

Japanese FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, a world-leading contract development and manufacturing organisation for biologics, vaccines, advanced therapies and oncolytic viruses, operates a largescale manufacturing site in Hillerød, Denmark with plans on expanding the site further. FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies is a good example of a company exploring the Danish green frameworks and finding partners to advancing their sustainable production journey.

 

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies has entered into a ten-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Better Energy to annually offtake 40 GWh of renewable energy. The agreement starts July 2025 and is expected to cover the total electricity consumption at the company’s biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Hillerød, including new operations coming online in 2024.

 

The PPA agreement marks a significant step that FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies is taking towards achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2040. The mission is to reach zero impacts from operations and decarbonise the supply chain as well as partner up with customers to reduce environmental impacts and improve transparency.

Advanced and digital manufacturing is the key to high productivity – but also support data for green initiatives.

“Denmark is known to have an advanced and digitalised industry landscape and, in many ways, it is the Life Science industry’s proactive approach to advanced digitalisation that places Denmark at the forefront of manufacturing. Digitalisation enables transparent and resilient supply chains, which mitigate the risks of delays, breaches in the supply chains or even factory shut-downs. Ultimately, the same digitalised data can be used to lower resource consumption and to reduce input and waste in production.”

Björn Snorri Gudmundsson Bøg

Special Advisor – Life Science Manufacturing, Invest in Denmark

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the report shows highly advancements made by Danish companies to digitalise production methods. 63% of the report’s respondents have already digitised production methods or are at a highly advanced state, it’s an increase of 14% compared to 2020. 47% of the Danish companies have either digitised their product development or are highly advanced in the process. 

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