Robotics adoption in the pharmaceutical vertical of manufacturing is accelerating, according to the Association for Advancing Automation.
North America’s largest automation trade association, also known as A3, reports that robot orders in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sector rose 22% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025 ended June 30.
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A significant chunk of that growth is being fueled by collaborative robots, or cobots, which accounted for nearly a quarter of all units ordered and 14.7% of sector revenue during Q2, according to A3’s report.
Cobots are carving out a role in pharma manufacturing, with a recent peer-reviewed study noting success in particular within the cell and gene therapy space.
Multiply Labs, working in partnership with cobot developer Universal Robots, has developed a robotic biomanufacturing cluster that was shown to cut the cost of producing life-saving cell therapies by 74%.
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“Robotics is proving to be a perfect use case for high-mix manufacturing,” said Winston Zha, special projects lead at Multiply Labs. “Nowhere is that more true than in autologous cell therapies, where every batch is personalized for a patient. The cutting-edge of treatments is clearly trending towards these personalized medicines across the industry.”
Check out the rest of the piece by Pharma Manufacturing’s Andy Lundin.
