Taking part in the Vetter Open Innovation Challenge – Injection 2.0, which initially began in June, 18 participants consisting of four teams submitted their ideas on how digital trends can be made to be both useful and profitable in the everyday life of its users.
Following workshops and field phases, the CDMO Vetter has announced a winner of the challenge. The winner developed a method to improve the documentation process of the administration of drugs, helping to make the process easier, faster and safer. The winning team received a prize of €10,000.
The four teams were arranged in a multidisciplinary fashion, including students and professionals from the fields of medicine and economic sciences, as well as members of the Vetter staff.
Following the June kick-off workshop, participants entered into dialogue with the users of injectables, in particular caregivers and patients. With the help of this first-hand knowledge, the teams first designed initial idea concepts and prototypes for discussion and testing among potential users. Further development followed.
On 25 September, the four groups presented their ideas in short presentations at the company’s Ravensburg Vetter West site. The jury deciding the final winner consisted of Professor Folker Wenzel, a practicing physician and academic dean for technical physicians at the HFU Furtwangen, Eva-Maria Makutzik, an innovation manager at EIT Health Germany, complemented by senior management representatives of the organising company Vetter.
“As a contract development and manufacturing organization that teams up with our globally active pharma and biotech customers, we want to bring the needs of users into even greater focus for future activities. Only through this action can we provide patients around the world, in alliance with our customers, with even better and more up-to-date services related to the delivery of injectables,” said Dr Claus Feussner, Senior VP Vetter Development Service.
“The format of the Open Innovation Challenge – Injection 2.0, which targets new approaches in injectable delivery, was an overall success. We were impressed not only with the results of the participating teams, but also their general approach and team spirit created during the challenge.”
Tobias Schloegl, Project Manager, Vetter, said: “Joining the Vetter Open Innovation Challenge was a great experience. By doing so, we had the significant opportunity of developing, testing and implementing our own ideas in close consultation with subject matter experts as well as the end-users themselves. This was an exciting and demanding challenge for everyone involved, and one which only a few companies are able to offer.”
