How an exciting new program is engaging and enabling young people to work in advanced medicines manufacturing. By Ivan Wall
Medicines are evolving rapidly, and many new drugs contain high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients – but these present serious handling challenges and expensive specialized equipment is needed to protect employees and their environment from exposure.
In addition, ‘biologics’ (which includes vaccines, blood components, somatic cells and tissues) may be highly effective against a variety of currently untreatable conditions, but they tend to be heat sensitive and susceptible to contamination, and the initial parts of the manufacturing process are particularly delicate.
Finally, ground-breaking personalized therapies are starting to emerge – but they are produced in multiple small batches, which means production is costly, they are difficult to reproduce at scale, and they require highly skilled operators. 
In the face of these challenges, it doesn’t help that advanced medicines manufacturing is suffering from a serious skills gap, and that not enough young people are entering the sector. So, how can this be addressed?
To start, by not only encouraging young people to take STEM subjects at school, but also by making them aware of the many career options available to them within the sciences. Then, by developing training programs that teach the necessary skills for working in the sector.
That’s precisely the remit of a two-year, £4.5 million government program, RESILIENCE – the UK’s Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence, which is designed specifically to address the sector’s skills gap and create a trained and qualified next-generation workforce.
Real-world problems
Gaining access to laboratories or advanced manufacturing facilities for training is disruptive and expensive – people must travel there, materials are consumed, training staff must be on-hand, working days are interrupted.
However, VR technology dramatically reduces the dependency on real-world facilities, removing the need to consume expensive materials and enabling training anywhere at any time.
So, it should not be a surprise that VR is a key enabling technology for training. The RESILIENCE program, which started in April 2024, has so far achieved a significant level of training via outreach programs:
1200 trainees attended industry relevant events led by RESILIENCE partners
13,500 students from across the UK participated in training and outreach activities through 170 events
75 future sector leaders from 23 organizations developed skills through the leadership accelerator programs
These are hugely encouraging results, and the RESILIENCE partner organizations (University of Birmingham, University College London, Teesside University, Heriot-Watt, University) continue to collaborate to deliver training, outreach, and educational resources, working with other institutions and the NHS.
Life sciences is a key sector for the UK economy; the recently published Life sciences competitiveness indicators 2024 noted that pharmaceutical manufacturing’s gross value added (GVA) was £13.7 billion in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP), which represents medicines manufacturers in the UK, noted in 2023 that medicines manufacturing generates the majority of life sciences jobs.
Virtual money
In simple terms, VR is a computer-generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be real, making the user feel immersed in that environment. The key technology is the VR headset, which covers the eyes and ears and effectively blanks out the real world. Critically, the computer-generated environment can be an exact replica of a real-world environment.
The VR market is predicted to grow dramatically over the next few years, from $15 billion in 2024 to $38 billion by 2029, according to market specialists Markets and Markets. This is a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of almost 20 percent. Some analysts are even more bullish, and it’s easy to see why.
A key driver of that growth is the ability to simulate real world environments, which it would otherwise be impractical, disruptive, or expensive to experience.
Medicines manufacturing is a prime example of such an environment.
What did VR ever do for us?
With VR it is possible to learn a wide range of vital practices, without being in a real facility. Cleaning is an example of a simple, yet vitally important skill.
Much of the core training is about orientation, building confidence, familiarity, and process knowledge, so VR is a highly efficient and cost-effective delivery method. Training time is on-demand, unlimited, and can be repeated at will.
Critically, training can be standardized across geographies and sites, and there’s no limit on class sizes. From cleanrooms to complex manufacturing tools, a VR-based tour of a real-world facility allows you to explore every corner with unprecedented detail and precision.
The VR environment used in the Resilience training program is based on one of the most advanced facilities in the country, the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult’s manufacturing center in Stevenage.
Conclusions
VR technology will continue to evolve, to become a key enabler for training in industry and manufacturing. The leading payers are developing wireless HD headsets, using ever more powerful processors. They will undoubtedly soon integrate AI, and 5G will allow more devices and larger communities to be connected.
For advanced medicines manufacturing, this means even better training and an even more exciting and engaging career path for young people.
Ivan Wall
Ivan Wall is Professor of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Birmingham and co-director of Resilience – the UK’s Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence. RESILIENCE is the major focus in his current academic role. As Co-Director he brings together leading experts in industry skills training and leads the adoption of creative new approaches to meet rapidly evolving sector skills needs.