Automation at AbbVie

The Culture and Impact of Adopting New Technology

In 2019, AbbVie’s Process Research team began a focused effort on increasing the utilization of automation to advance the pipeline. With new technologies comes change in growth and impact on daily science and in the organization’s culture around that shift. This presentation describes how AbbVie has embraced that change, navigated hurdles to form effective teams, allowing AbbVie to adopt and leverage new automation technologies to advance the pipeline.

Who should watch this presentation?

Chemists and Engineers doing chemical development in Pharmaceutical and High-Value Chemical Development. In particular, anyone interested in:

  • Increasing Productivity - Even with Limited Time in the Lab
  • Obtaining More Information - From Every Experiment
  • Automated Solutions - To Support Physical Distancing and Remote Work

About the Presenter

Westin Morrill

Westin Morrill

AbbVie

Westin Morrill is a process chemist for AbbVie, in North Chicago, IL. He completed his undergraduate work at Portland State University under the guidance of Professor David Peyton, which lead to his work on development of anti-malarial drugs at DesignMedix. He received an industrial Master of Science in Chemistry from the University of Oregon while working at W.R. Grace developing large scale manufacturing conditions for organometallic complexes and nucleosides. In 2013, he started at AbbVie in the process chemistry group. At AbbVie, he has been a part of several programs, including the process development for Glecaprevir {gle-cap-re-veer}. In conjunction with process chemistry, he also helps lead the automation effort at AbbVie.