India, Aug. 19 -- Across the pharmaceutical industry, I keep hearing one message from regulatory auditors: manual intervention must go. With new global guidelines such as EU-GMP Annex 1 placing heightened emphasis on contamination control, manufacturers-especially in sterile operations-are being pushed to challenge long-standing practices.

For me, eliminating contamination has never been just about meeting compliance checklists. It's about designing cleaner, more resilient manufacturing ecosystems that can keep pace with today's demands for agility, speed, and uncompromising quality. In sterile and injectable manufacturing, even the smallest manual touchpoint can carry unacceptable risk.

Over the years, I've moved away from a reactive q...