Creators, makers, pioneers

More than 12,000 employees, globally active and passionate about innovation — that is the way to achieve both market and technological leadership. We are Körber. Presenting our Group.

To overview

We are Körber

Körber is a leading international technology group that has more than 12,000 employees at over 100 locations worldwide. We are the home for entrepreneurs — we turn entrepreneurial thinking into customers success. Körber AG manages the Group and its four Business Areas: Digital, Pharma, Supply Chain and Technologies.

Insights

The Körber Insights shows the entire spectrum of the Körber world: We give our view of exciting developments and trends, as well as innovations and technologies. We also highlight personalities who drive Körber forward every day with their entrepreneurial spirit and new ideas.

Sustainability

Sustainability

We develop innovative products, solutions and services for a more sustainable tomorrow and introduce the people who make them possible. Find out more in our Sustainability Report 2023.

Online Sustainability Report 2023PDF Sustainability Report 2023

Körber pursues ambitious climate targets

In October 2023, we had the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) verify our commitment to achieving net-zero CO₂e emissions throughout the entire value chain by 2040. We would like to introduce you to some of the measures that will help us achieve this ambitious goal.

Group-wide standards for Ecodesign

We were able to advance our Ecodesign initiative decisively in 2023 after creating a group-wide standard for life cycle assessments (LCAs). Find out more about the first LCAs we implemented and the challenges we overcame.

Data and infrastructure protection

We aim to transform information security into a strategic objective and make it a shared concern for all employees. We provide an overview of the corresponding measures and projects in 2023.

Career

Career

Wanted: team players. The know-how, creativity, and dedication of our employees have made us a successful technology company in Germany and worldwide. Now we want to shape the future — with you! We offer exciting positions for experts, young professionals, university students, and high school students.

To CareerTo the Körber Group job market

"Modern leadership culture has a performance-enhancing effect"

A working climate that promotes innovation, diversity, and the courage to tell uncomfortable truths is more central than ever to a company's success today. In an interview, Gabriele Fanta, Head of Group Human Resources, explains how the new leadership principles at Körber specifically strengthen fruitful collaboration in everyday working life.

What comes after traineeship, Max?

Experience report: After graduating in mechatronics and mechanical engineering, Max Döring became a trainee at Körber. Today, he is Technical Product Manager at our Körber Business Area Pharma.

Procurement and Supply Chain Management

Procurement and Supply Chain Management

Joint future-proof activities are the foundation of sustainable procurement. Körber, as a globally leading technology group, therefore places great value on the optimal purchasing of materials and services.

To our Procurement and Supply Chain Management

Pharma

„We deliver the difference for patients."

Cell and gene therapy is considered a milestone in the fight against diseases. Dr. Judith Koliwer, Principal Consultant Cell and Gene Therapy Software in the Körber Business Area Pharma, explains how software-based production management tools are lifting the quality and safety of therapy for both companies and patients to the next level.

Dr. Koliwer, the market for cell and gene therapies (CGT) has been growing rapidly for years. What makes this form of therapy so exceptional?

Dr. Judith Koliwer: The underlying idea of one of the most successful CGT approaches, CAR-T therapy, is to take cells from diseased people and genetically modify them in such a way that - when injected back into the patient’s body - they can precisely find and fight cancer cells. This personalized form of therapy opens up an entirely new range of treatment and healing options for patients. This is already saving many lives for which, until recently, there was little hope.

At what stage do you currently see CGT?

After a major breakthrough in 2017 - the first approval of the CAR-T therapy I just mentioned - and several other significant advances since then, we are now in the midst of a phase of exponential implementation. CGTs, or ATMPs (Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products), are undoubtedly the fastest growing market within the pharmaceutical industry right now. 

Last year alone, both the number of approvals and the sales volume almost quadrupled worldwide. There are numerous good and well-tested products on the market, especially for the treatment of certain types of cancer such as leukemia, hereditary diseases like cystic fibrosis, or non-hereditary diseases including Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. 

However, with the growth of the industry massive challenges are arising: For example, are we able to produce these highly complex and personalized therapies in large numbers? How do we manage the extensive documentation requirements and the huge amounts of data? And how do we learn quickly and effectively from previous therapy experiences?

The market for cell and gene therapy grows substantially

So how exactly are innovative software solutions like Körber's Werum PAS-X going to help us meet these challenges?

As said, the production processes in cell and gene therapy are of high complexity – from cell sampling via the tailor-made manufacturing procedure to the actual patient treatment. Herein lies the source of numerous errors that are potentially life-threatening – particularly when the assignment of therapeutic agent and patient is carried out manually.

Digital Manufacturing Execution Systems such as Werum PAS-X MES greatly simplify both the establishment and documentation of this Chain of Identity. Hence, they can help to ensure that the coherent cells arrive at the right patients. Additionally, they support the Chain of Custody by recording and monitoring all events, the devices used and the participants involved throughout the entire process. 

Our customers can digitize the entire production process, collect all the data they need and obtain all the relevant information in real time - whether it's managing equipment, inventory and materials, documenting the process with Electronic Batch Recording (EBR) or administering manufacturing recipes with Master Batch Records (MBR). 

And finally: When all data is available digitally, you can react quickly and flexibly to new conditions, as this was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example. Also, the legal situation is progressing for these new therapies, as the approval criteria of the responsible U.S. authority, the FDA, and the EU authority, the EMA, are also adjusted as new findings emerge.

The high cost per therapy is considered the main obstacle to a wider application of CGT. Can PAS-X software solutions pave the way for CGT to become a mainstream therapy?

Taking into account, that there are often six-figure sums involved per therapy, the pressure is obviously on to both maximize the chances of success and reduce the cost of the treatment itself. One important aspect of this is easing the burden on staff. The CGT market is growing much faster than companies can train and hire suitable personnel. 

It is therefore all the more crucial to relieve the existing experts in such a way that they have as much time as possible for the actual therapy work and offer the companies opportunities for upscaling. Digitization of processes can play an essential role here, for example by automating calculations within the process and using known algorithms for prescription decisions. In addition, the documentation effort can be significantly reduced by reading information from barcodes instead of manual documentation. Another important aspect is the standardization of processes - a major challenge, as the source material can be highly variable. 

With digital systems, flexibility within the process can be precisely defined: Is it possible to have different paths at which points? When and where should the system provide information on the basis of which experts can make decisions? Where is the process fixed and can only be changed within the framework of a documented deviation? By capturing digital data, this approach can then be used to further optimization and iterative standardization of the process.

Can PAS-X also support the evaluation of the digital data?

Without a doubt. Digital data can be merged, visualized, and analyzed using PAS-X Data Access and PAS-X Savvy from a variety of sources, including those outside PAS-X. This allows large amounts of data to be evaluated including learning results from previous therapies in order to optimize the process. There are so many parameters to consider and process steps to evaluate, so digital systems surely are a great relief. We increase the success of therapy in this way, too – and that's what's driving us. We can really deliver the difference for patients.

Can you name any customers that Körber is already working with – and how does the collaboration work?

Körber is the market leader for digital manufacturing execution systems for pharmaceutical, biotech and cell & gene therapy and works for leading organizations around the world. The internationally active cell therapy manufacturer Takeda, for example, uses PAS-X MES for data and technology transfer at its site in Cambridge. And China's vaccine manufacturer Walvax Biotechnology also relies fully on PAS-X at its digital factory in Yuxi. On top of that, our collaboration with start-ups is growing rapidly. 

All our customers have a high degree of expertise at all levels. We intensively share ideas and learn from each other on an ongoing basis – whether bilaterally, at industry conferences, or on business partner platforms. At Körber, we are specifically developing our expertise in supply chain platforms through strategic partnerships with companies such as Hypertrust Patient Data Care, TrakCel, and Vineti. 

We aim to increase CGT production performance and transparency with standardized interfaces for manufacturing and logistics solutions, as well as create comprehensive ecosystems for digitized manufacturing planning that integrate all levels and players.

How will CGT industry evolve in the coming years?

Market dynamics will continue to grow - focusing increasingly on allogeneic forms of therapy. Until now, autologous therapies have been leading the way, based on the modification of the body's own cells. In the allogeneic variant, patients are treated with cells specifically tailored to their needs from healthy donors or cell banks. A single donor can thus supply an entire group of patients. While this opens up new opportunities in terms of scaling and mass efficacy, it also poses new risks, such as side effects and data processing. As you can see, a lot is happening. In the fight against widespread diseases, we are just beginning to fully exploit our technological potential.

You want to learn more about this topic? Visit our Körber Xperience .

To our Körber Xperience

Meet the expert:

Dr. Judith Koliwer holds a PhD in cell biochemistry from UKE Hamburg and UCSF in San Francisco. She has many years of experience in research on cancer and neurodisease, cell cultures as well as lenti- and retroviruses. Today, as Principal Consultant Cell and Gene Therapy, Koliwer is responsible for the development of cell and gene therapy projects in the Körber Business Area Pharma.

www.koerber-pharma.com

Insights shows the entire spectrum of Körber, what we do and how we do it: We give our view of exciting developments and trends, as well as innovations and technologies. We also highlight personalities who drive Körber forward every day with their entrepreneurial spirit and new ideas - always to the benefit of our customers. In this section, you’ll find inspiring content concerning our topic Tech.

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Tech

"Our customers know: We can not only handle end-of-line, we can manage ecosystems"

With the PA15, Körber has developed a layer palletizer that meets the requirements of our industrial customers in an energy-efficient and flexible way. In this interview, manufacturing logistics experts Dominik Griefahn and Peter Lambeck provide insights into why the PA15 can serve as the centerpiece of operational pallet logistics.

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Tech

Why complex when it can be simple?!

Many provide individual solutions; only a few provide ecosystems. As experts in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, we at Körber rely on strategic ecosystem partnerships and offer our customers holistic solutions from a single source: everything, effortlessly, in one place.

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Tech

Körber evolves ecosystem partnership with Microsoft to create more value for customers

To help our customers become more efficient and agile in pharmaceutical production, we transformed our market-leading PAS-X Manufacturing Execution System (MES) offering into a cloud-based solution. The partnership with Microsoft plays a key role here.

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Tech

Pioneering information security with AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides hackers with new ways to attack organizations. But it also opens up opportunities for companies to better protect themselves against these attacks. Körber is, therefore, investing in AI and advising its customers to follow suit.

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Tech

Collaboration is key – the power of B2B ecosystems

At a time when new technologies and business models are rapidly entering the market, complexity increases. Interconnected solutions will allow us to realize our full potential in creating customer value.

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