Emerson acquires life sciences analytics software firm

Emerson of St. Louis, MO, has acquired Berkeley, CA-based Bioproduction Group (Bio-G), a leader in simulation, modeling, and scheduling software for biomanufacturing. Bio-G’s scheduling and modeling systems combined with Emerson’s extensive life sciences technology and expertise portfolio will help companies bring therapies for cancer, diabetes and other illnesses to patients sooner.

Life sciences companies continually look to accelerate the production of patient therapies and the Bio-G Scheduling software helps them accurately predict future plant resource availability to optimize manufacturing production. The scheduling software delivers an instantaneous view, accessible across an organization, into the current and future state of the plant, providing decision support to help increase facility uptime and reduce schedule-related product losses.

By connecting analytics and modeling tools with data from automation and operations systems—including Emerson’s DeltaV distributed control system and Syncade manufacturing execution system—the scheduling software provides a unified view of operations, maintenance, quality, and corporate systems. Bio-G’s software will become a part of Emerson’s Plantweb digital ecosystem, a comprehensive IIoT portfolio that expands digital intelligence to the entire manufacturing enterprise.

Bio-G modeling and analytics software.

“We continue to work closely with industry leaders to develop the manufacturing technologies and approaches needed for next-generation biomanufacturing. With this acquisition, we can deliver even more ways to accelerate life sciences manufacturing,” said Tom Snead, president of life sciences at Emerson.

Organizations invest hundreds of millions of dollars building manufacturing facilities to bring medicines and therapies to patients. The success of those efforts and their operations often depends on the facility’s actual production meeting the facility’s designed production. Bio-G’s Real-Time Modeling System provides debottlenecking, capacity engineering, and technology transfer analytics to deliver a comprehensive evaluation of a facility’s design and provide confidence prior to project execution and capital expenditure.

The modeling framework accurately identifies and quantifies bottlenecks, as well as determines the effectiveness of proposed solutions across all areas of a manufacturing facility. This modeling system helps accelerate the process of bringing therapies from clinical trials to full-scale manufacturing to patients by validating a facility’s potential for manufacturing success.

“We’re excited to join Emerson,” said David Zhang, Bio-G’s CEO and co-founder, who will be joining Emerson. “We’re united by a common mission to help innovate and find new ways for biomanufacturing organizations to optimize operations through technology.”