Glattbrugg ZH – Vifor Pharma has won the 2018 Pharma 4.0 Award for innovation of the year in drug manufacturing. The pharmaceutical company from the Greater Zurich Area implemented an augmented reality system.

Vifor Pharma is the first company to create a dynamic teamwork system based on augmented reality. According to a press release, its system displays data, information and 3D holographic information on a special set of eyeglasses, which displays both the virtual reality as well as the real environment.

Vifor Pharma implemented this project last year together with its partner Goodly Innovations. Their innovation was awarded the 2018 Pharma 4.0 Award, which was handed out at this year’s Pharma TRACKTS! and Pharma MES Berlin conferences.

Their system facilitates drug manufacturing and packaging processes. Employees normally have a range of tasks in these fields, and Vifor Pharma’s augmented reality device works by presenting the task list as a dynamic, multi-user workflow that adapts continuously to real-life operations as each task is completed. The application also gives users instructions for complex tasks.

The augmented reality system increases productivity by up to 50 per cent at the company’s packaging plant, said Benno Bischof, Head of Product Group, Technical Operations at the Vifor Pharma plant in St.Gallen, where the project was implemented.

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