Towards a Pharmaceutical Cyber-Physical Systems Based Automated Drug Discovery Workcell

Abstract

The global pharmaceutical industry, despite its growth, faces challenges in drug development, characterized by extensive timeframes and high costs. A significant bottleneck in this process is the labor-intensive and inefficient experimental synthesis in medicinal chemistry. The transition to automated methods offers a solution to these challenges, promising enhanced efficiency, scalability, and safety, while significantly reducing time and costs. This paper presents the development of an automated rotating bed reactor as part of an intelligent Cyber-Physical System-based automated drug discovery workcell. The automated rotating bed reactor is designed to be easily integrated as a component in the workcell, aiming to enable rapid adaptation to meet the specific needs of on-demand drug production. Experiments with the system shows that it has the potential to enhance the yield of the chemical reactions.