Enabling optimised fill & finish performance: SCHOTT increases equity share in Smart Skin Technologies

 

SCHOTT (Mainz, Germany), a leading supplier of primary pharmaceutical packaging, is investing another single-digit million-euro amount into Canadian big data expert Smart Skin as part of their second financing round. Smart Skin offers a monitoring system that helps pharma companies identify weak spots on their production lines. As a result, the pharmaceutical containers run smoothly on the lines, saving the pharma companies time and money. The Smart Skin solution is part of a comprehensive package that SCHOTT offers to improve productivity and increase yield.

At the heart of Smart Skin’s solution are packaging drones that mimic the shape of vials, syringes, or cartridges. They are equipped with hundreds of sensors. As they traverse the filling line with pharmaceutical containers, they measure where they encounter adverse forces, including pressure, spin, tilt and shock. The real-time analysis helps the pharma companies adjust the filling lines to increase their performance and efficiency significantly while reducing wastage.

“Working closely with SCHOTT has helped us gain deeper insights into pharmaceutical glass packaging,” states Evan Justason, CEO of Smart Skin Technologies. “This has enabled us to support pharmaceutical companies with an even better basis to minimise the downtime in production and optimise the yield.“  

Fabian Stöcker, VP global strategy & innovation for SCHOTT’s pharma business, adds, “Our close cooperation with Smart Skin has been an important enhancement to our portfolio for a number of years. The solution is a powerful lever for our customers to boost productivity. We are more than happy to increase our share with Smart Skin.”

Caption: Smart Skin offers in-depth analysis of filling and packaging lines, providing precise pressure management to reduce glass breakage, bruising and micro fractures and optimising performance (photo: Smart Skin Technologies)