Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a global biotechnology company focused on scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for serious diseases.
Rachelle Howard, Director of Manufacturing Systems Automation and Digital Strategy at Vertex, shared her insights in a recorded video presentation at the ARC Forum held in Orlando, Florida during February 2025 on the company’s digital transformation journey, and how Vertex balances technology investments with a human-centric approach in support of its mission.
This article was written by Malcolm Jeffers, Transformation Strategist and Head of Research with the International Academy of Automation Engineering (IAAE), long time partner of Vertex in their capability building, following an interview with Rachelle and includes key points from her recent presentation at the forum.
Please note that the views of contributors are not the stated views of the organizations they work for.
From Chemical Engineering to Digital Strategy at Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Rachelle Howard holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering with a focus on process control. According to Rachelle, “Working in digital systems that support manufacturing is a natural extension of process control“. Recognizing the need for better data access and integrity, after joining Vertex she and her colleagues have led the digitalization of systems, transitioning from paper-based processes to digital solutions.
Vertex have been leaders in the pharmaceutical industry in applying Continuous Manufacturing (CM) processes and Process Analytical Technology (PAT) to manufacture Oral Solid Dose medicines in less than 1.5 hours, compared to what may have taken up to a month historically. An illustration of the Continuous Manufacturing “Rig” is below.
Rachelle shares “Vertex is a very ambitious and rapidly expanding company. We started off with small molecules and now we’re into cell and gene therapies and a variety of different drug delivery approaches. My focus is more on our internal manufacturing space and our push towards the pipeline. We aim to quickly launch and commercialize our drugs, using a lot of Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) partners for the actual commercial production.”
Overcoming Challenges and Setting the Vision
How did the Vertex overcome so many technical, regulatory, and organizational challenges to become the organization it is today?
A decade ago, Vertex faced challenges including minimal digital infrastructure and low maturity in implementing systems. To address these, Vertex made significant organizational change management investments to:
- Set the Vision: Leaders within Vertex established a clear vision for new ways of working and the desired maturity levels, inspiring teams, and bringing them along on the journey.
- Share the Journey: Engaging with people, understanding current processes, and addressing pain points were crucial. This involved engaging all levels, leveraging strengths, and identifying change champions.
- Upskill: To realize the vision, Vertex has invested in developing skills for today and capabilities for tomorrow.
For Today: Tapping into current teams and training them for new technical roles, building data literacy, and providing access to easy-entry analytics tools.
For Tomorrow: Building a data culture with a focus on data quality and offering education programs for cross-functional teams, continuous improvement, and innovation.
Balancing Investments in Technology and People
Vertex carefully balances investments in technology with investments in its people. They secured sponsorship from site heads to drive digital transformation, focusing on proving the value of new systems through time savings and improved compliance.
The company recognised the need to bring in new skills and support to scale with the growth that technology brings. Vertex engages finance partners by aligning digital programs with annual goals, incorporating the voice of those doing the work, and using continuous improvement methods to address bottlenecks.
Gaining Leadership Support and Demonstrating ROI
To gain support from business leadership for digital investments, Vertex demonstrated tangible benefits such as time savings and compliance improvements. By rolling out digital solutions in phases and gathering feedback from teams, they built a strong case for continued investment.
Rachelle stated, “The initial push to get projects going was easier because the need was clear“. Examples of return on investment include:
- Warehouse barcoding saving over a day per batch.
- Manufacturing Execution System (MES) logbooks and weigh & dispense saving over four days per batch.
- Scheduling tools enabling data-driven capacity planning.
- Digital parts search management reducing change of line from 19 to 8 days.
- Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) has shown a >50% reduction in time for most processes.
Recognizing that user adoption is critical to ROI, Vertex employed human-centric approaches to ensure end-user engagement throughout delivery. In cases where the organizational change management practices weren’t fully embedded this resulted in adoption struggles, user dissatisfaction, and resistance to additional change.
Fostering a Culture of Innovation and Collaboration
Vertex maintains a culture of innovation, speed, and collaboration by valuing the time to do things right. They emphasise the importance of doing things well and fostering a culture that embraces change.
Rachelle shared, “We definitely have a culture of moving quickly but also taking the necessary time to do things right has helped maintain high standards and ensure that digital solutions meet the needs of the organisation. A core principle at Vertex is to debate hard and move forward together as one”.
The Role of Change Champions and Communities of Practice
To sustain the momentum of digital transformation, Vertex developed change champion networks. These networks consist of dynamic leaders who advocate for their teams and digital systems, helping their teams adopt new technologies.
Rachelle explains, “To sustain the momentum of digital transformation, we’ve developed change champion networks. This approach has been developed over time based on needs and has proven effective in listening, partnering, and supporting successful rollouts“.
These change champion networks engage end-users of all levels and overcome hurdles, ensuring engagement with a diverse range of cross-functional teams and maintaining standards across different areas. Vertex is also working towards expanding change champions into communities of practice, where people come together to share, learn, and maintain standards.
Looking to the Future
Vertex’s culture of innovation and speed drives its digital transformation. Key focus areas include:
- Ensuring manufacturing teams continue to be inspired by their role in pipeline delivery.
- Building maturity for sustaining new ways of working and growing a data culture.
- Strengthening an approach to upskilling more intentionally in data analytics.
Enabling teams with tools and access to data management, analytics, and visualisation.
Takeaways for other Pharma 4.0 Leaders
- Balancing and Aligning Investments: The company carefully balances investments in technology with investments in skilling people by securing sponsorship from senior leaders.Aligning people investments with business transformation goals has been key to Vertex’s success and having the patience to link these initiatives to appropriate goals year to year has also been a key factor.
- Securing Leadership Support by Demonstrating Tangible Benefits such as time savings and compliance improvements has been crucial in gaining support from business leadership for digital investments.
- Building a Culture of Innovation and Collaboration: Vertex maintains a culture of innovation and collaboration, emphasizing the importance of doing things right and fostering a culture that embraces change.
- Developing Skills for Today and Capabilities for Tomorrow: Developing new skills and upskilling existing team members are priorities, with continuous learning opportunities provided through training and education programs (including the multi-year capability building engagements with IAAE since 2020*)
- Change Champions: Change champion networks have been developed to sustain the momentum of digital transformation and truly engage teams.
Overall, Vertex has built several structures to develop and sustain culture involving a combination of change champion networks, communities of practice, leadership development programs, employee development programs, and recognition schemes, and continuous improvement processes.
*Case Study Infographic: Accelerating People Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Through IAAE® Learning Sprints
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