Bormioli Pharma Speeds Up on Innovation With H-FARM

Fast prototyping and an approach to innovation focused on customer needs are at the heart of the innovation path undertaken by Bormioli Pharma alongside H-FARM. The goal is to simplify the business model and the whole process of creating new products, while also taking advantage of the many opportunities offered the by the digital age to improve productivity and effectiveness as well.

This is the first product design project realized by H-FARM and specifically made for Bormioli Pharma, a company specialized in primary glass and plastic packaging production for the pharmaceutical industry: a qualitative field research, which for the first time also involved industry professionals from the medical field and families, and a technical research to identify the most innovative and relevant trends and case studies in the sector, have made it possible to really understand the needs of the end users and how they interact with pharmaceutical packaging.

A multidisciplinary team of Bormioli Pharma was then involved in a 2-day workshop, which led to the definition of three project briefs, on the basis of which the H-FARM professionals developed a rapid design and prototyping strategy called Fast Factory, using 3D printing technology among others.

The first prototype is Thread, a pediatric syrup dispenser with an innovative design, which allows the user to measure liquids directly from the bottle by using only one hand. The second one is Andy, an add-on for bottles, which allows the patient to dose and drink medicines directly from the bottle, in a few simple steps. Finally, we have Plug, a device for the reconstitution of parenteral drugs that integrates in a structured way the bottle as well and allows users to complete the process in a completely safe fashion. Thanks to this innovation approach, divided into several phases, Bormioli Pharma was able to test a new business model, in which the product design and development phases are totally distorted: the starting point is no longer the need of a single customer, but that of the end user, which is satisfied quickly and at a low cost thanks to the technologically advanced solutions, which allow to gain a significant competitive advantage against competitors.

“The need to accelerate our innovation process stems from our desire to respond to the patient and market needs quickly and efficiently,” says Federico Piutti, Innovation Manager of Bormioli Pharma. He adds “Thanks to our collaboration with H-Farm not only have we managed to develop product prototypes that answer these needs, but we have discovered an absolutely applicable strategic and operational approach, which became an integral part of our innovation process.”

Now, a little less than a year after the workshop that kicked off the synergy between Bormioli Pharma and H-Farm, 2020 represents the start of a new innovation cycle for the two companies, a cycle which as of today begins with an idea generation phase.

Bormioli Pharma operates in close partnership with the pharmaceutical industry and with all the businesses that are engineering the future of healthcare. As a world-renowned player in the packaging industry, Bormioli Pharma serves the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical market with integrated glass and plastic containers, closures, and packaging accessories using state-of-the-art materials and technologies. Each product is a unique combination of rigorous studies, cutting-edge technology, extreme testing, advanced industrial processes, and the finest materials. As a partner to the pharmaceutical industry, Bormioli Pharma invests and innovates with one goal in mind: improving people’s lives. Bormioli Pharma employees over 1200 people, produces 6.5 billion pieces every year and had an annual turnover of approximately €250 million in 2019.

H-FARM

It is the innovation platform capable of supporting the creation of new business models and the transformation and education of young people and Italian companies in a digital perspective. Founded in January 2005, H- Farm was the first project in the world to adopt a model that combined training, investment and business consulting in a single place. Since its launch, it has invested over 28 million euros to support the development of more than a hundred innovative companies, works actively with more than 300 of the most important international brands that support the opportunities offered by the digital transformation and now trains more than a thousand students in its 4 international schools and in its university course through an international training course shaped into a digital format. Structured as a campus, being the subject of an improvement intervention that will take it from 14 thousand square meters of buildings on more than 20 hectares of park up to 42 thousand square meters of total buildings spread over 51 hectares just outside Venice, H- FARM is intended to become the most important pole of European innovation. H-FARM has more than 600 people working in 5 offices in Italy and is considered unique at international level. Since November 13, 2015 it has been listed on the AIM segment of the Italian Stock Exchange and is available for public trading.