AR company offers coronavirus-safe collaboration kits

Augmented reality (AR) company Apprentice, headquartered in Jersey City, NJ, is shipping Its Tandem Rapid Deployment Kits to pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing facilities. The kit is designed to foster collaboration across geographically separated sites--were created to help operations deal with travel bans, facility closures and other obstacles caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Angelo Stracquatanio, CEO and cofounder of Apprentice, told Outsourcing-Pharma company leaders realized the pharma Industry needed technology In the face of the virus.

"Our largest clients, who are responsible for some of the world’s most important drugs, called us asking how fast we could ship our platform to their facilities​,” he said. "Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities around the globe needed our kits are physically on-site for emergency contingency planning, especially for facilities whose operations have already been significantly impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.​"

Each of the kits comes with the company's Tandem AR platform, which is loaded onto hands-free, clean-room compliant AR glasses and accessories. According to Stracquatanio, the compliant technology helps R&D and manufacturing operations reach across language and geographical barriers to facilitate real-time collaboration.

"It allows a remote team to collaborate effectively during this crisis while scientists are in the lab and other team members are at home. They can share data, content, and guide remote individuals though the process​," he said.

Stracquatanio told us demand for the remote collaborative technology of the Tandem AR kits has been significant.

"The interest has been incredible​," he said. "We're heading into the hundreds and customers are contacting us each day for more, especially in light of travel bans and potential limitations on the shipment of cargo and goods​."

"Our teams have been working around the clock to get our Tandem kits to these critical organizations responsible for providing lifesaving drugs to the people who need them most​," he added.

In 2017, Apprentice raised $2.5m in capital​ for its burgeoning company and its AR technology solutions. In September 2018, the company announced it had landed another $8m in funding.