As the Fight Against COVID-19 continues across several states pan India, it’s worth taking stock of the epidemiological situation and trends that will define the months ahead. At the time of this writing, the official counts of cases have surpassed one lakh plus and companies and state government are grappling to deal with the situation and life sciences organizations are ramping up innovation and production activities to cater to the need of PPE equipment, medical devices as timely life support system.

Stakeholders are coming together to fight the pandemic in four ways:

• Using advanced technologies to find a possible vaccine or drug that could act as a cure
• Manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) at scale to aid frontline healthcare workers
• Collaborating with the public sector to strengthen citizen protection, sanitization and contact tracing
• Enabling research institutions and academia in their drug repositioning efforts for COVID-19

At Dassault Systèmes, we care about people, and nothing is more important than the health and the safety of our employees, customers, business partners, and their families. To that end, we have taken concrete measures to protect the extended Dassault Systèmes community including sanitization, travel limitations, and rescheduling of events. To aid customers, we endeavor to turn this crisis into possibilities for innovation. And, our virtual universes are at the service of the fight against COVID-19, particularly in the realm of life sciences and healthcare.

 

A Shifting Life Sciences Landscape Inspiring Fresh Innovations

In response to COVID-19, stakeholders must innovate at lightning speeds, in a bid to get ahead of the pace of spread, we supported different stakeholders in their response plans by leveraging our sophisticated technologies.

Dassault Systèmes’ Industry Solutions based on MEDIDATA is enabling collaborative innovation among life sciences and healthcare professionals, generating clinical trials results faster to optimize manufacturing and keep up with demand. “Because of our presence in the life sciences industry, and because of clinical trials, Dassault Systèmes throughout 2020 will really be on the frontlines for COVID-19,” said Bernard Charlès, Vice-Chairman & CEO, Dassault Systèmes.

At Wuhan, China, our fluid simulation application SIMULIA XFlow is being used at the Leishenshan Hospital to design its air supply and exhaust systems.

We are helping to simulate the human sneeze for the development of personal protective equipment (PPE). Sneezing is a major channel for the novel coronavirus to spread. Dassault Systèmes used its SIMULIA PowerFLOW simulation applications to demonstrate what happens when a person sneezes, to better understand the effectiveness of different PPE.

To understand our offering in detail, you can watch the Webinar here

 

Supporting India’s Life Sciences Sector through Digital Continuity

In India, stronger supply chains and the ability to imbibe new ideas from a variety of stakeholders is key to success during this crisis. At Dassault Systèmes, we offer cutting-edge solutions for digital continuity and pharma and biotech research, driving collaboration even as India’s various life sciences stakeholders face workplace closures and social distancing measures.

 

1. Sanitization and fumigation of public spaces

Last year, we partnered with drone startup, General Aeronautics — GA uses the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform to attain digital continuity across its Design & Manufacturing value chain. For COVID-19, GA partnered with a city administration authority in Bengaluru, using drones to sanitize over 12000 sq. m. of densely populated area.

 

2. Smart ventilators led by a frugal engineering approach

Inali, another Indian startup, came up with an affordable smart ventilator for emergency use. These smart ventilators can be manufactured indigenously, and INALI will publish the complete ventilator design and manufacturing details as open-source information.

“Designed and built entirely on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform on the cloud and supported by 3DEXPERIENCE Lab (Startup incubation program), it is a SMART ventilator that includes volume and pressure controls, alarms and numerous other features. This is an example of how, working with the platform, we are able to make a difference to the current crisis in our context,” said, Prashant Gade, CEO at Inali.

The Dassault Systèmes Foundation in India will donate 100 such ventilators to hospitals and medical facilities in Maharashtra.

 

3. 3D printed face shield frames for frontline heroes

Further, our SIMULIA team in India has 3D printed face shield frames, of which we have supplied around 30 numbers to a Chennai-based medical college. In Andhra Pradesh, 3D Printers installed in the 3DEXPERIENCE Innovation Center are being used by the local authorities to manufacture critical medical equipment components to treat COVID-19.

 

4. Contactless collaboration for life sciences stakeholders

Our industry-specific solution, BIOVIA is also helping the research community to continue (and even speed up) collaborations as researchers work from home and practice social distancing. BIOVIA is designed to assist in the development of safe and effective therapeutic drugs, across the entire research and production lifecycle.

Dassault Systèmes offers research institutions and academia involved in COVID-19 related studies a no-charge, six-month license to BIOVIA Discovery Studio, reducing the barriers to entry for the latest technologies.

 

5. More agile supply for medical device manufacturing

Our 3DEXPERIENCE Make marketplace helps life sciences stakeholders quickly find qualified suppliers of 3D printed, CNC milled, injection-molded, laser-cut, and formed sheet metal parts for manufacturing of medical devices. The marketplace works with 3D models created in any CAD system. COVID-19 consortiums seeking to establish a private ecosystem can contact marketplace.make@3ds.com.

 

6. Digital Twin on the Cloud to optimize worker efficiency

A digital twin can optimize the efficiency of life sciences workers in a social distancing environment. Its other use cases include the fine tuning of PPE design before going into production, or simulating automated operations to reduce manual labor during the pandemic.

We enhance this basic digital twin with 3DEXPERIENCE Twin. 3DEXPERIENCE Twin with DELMIA Apps is an executable virtual model of a physical system that augments the simulation with real-world knowledge and experiences. This drives a “closed-loop capability” that lets life sciences stakeholders gain from the convergence of virtual and real-worlds.

 

How Dassault Systèmes Drives Scalable Innovation in these Critical Times

We, at Dassault Systèmes, believe, that technology could play a significant role in every part of the healthcare value chain, from research and clinical development to manufacturing and frontline patient care.

Our cloud-based solutions offer a remote collaboration platform for researchers, without compromising on features and capabilities. Our platforms catalyze the development of vital medical equipment, overcoming the challenges of uncertain supply chains.

And, to scale innovation in life sciences, we introduced the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab Open COVID-19 Community, helping companies in India and across the world.

The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab Open COVID‐19 Community speeds us processes for startups wanting to address the COVID‐19 challenge, solving issues like 3D-printing of parts or accelerating design when manufacturing ventilators/respirators. The Community provides collaborative engineering applications on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, 3DEXPERIENCE marketplace services, mentorships, validating the efficiency of solutions, and driving rapid production to support local hospital needs. The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab Open COVID‐19 Community gathers 3DEXPERIENCE Lab members from around the world, including the US, the UK, India, France, and the Netherlands.

 

As we continue the fight against COVID-19, Dassault Systèmes will stay steadfast in its commitment to support these frontline heroes and innovation luminaries who are boldly shaping our future. “Experience is Human” is more than our tagline. It is our commitment to improve the world for people. Our 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a catalyst for innovation, and people and organizations are leveraging its power to find creative solutions to the challenges of COVID-19. It is also enabling teams around the world to collaborate from the safety of their homes, allowing business continuity. Do stay safe, and connected.